Quantum scrambling is the complete diffusion of information throughout a quantum system. The system is not just entangled, but it is entangled at all depth levels throughout the whole system. Scrambling is also thought to be the fate of information introduced into a black hole, and is a perfect example of the connection between quantum information and cosmology. But scrambling it is very difficult to measure, because the space of quantum states is exponentially large.
We didn’t create a black hole in the lab, but instead implemented a 7-qubit circuit on our universal quantum computer that for the first time shows the unambiguous detection of scrambling. The signature is a successful teleportation of information across the circuit.
- “Verified Quantum Information Scrambling,” K. A Landsman, C. Figgatt, T. Schuster, N. M. Linke, B. Yoshida, N. Y. Yao, C. Monroe, Nature 567, 61 (2019); arXiv: 1806.02807.
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