Entanglement architecture of beyond-Landau quantum criticality

Menghan Song, Ting-Tung Wang, Liuke Lyu, William Witczak-Krempa, Zi Yang Meng

Published: 2025/9/12

Abstract

Quantum critical points beyond the Landau paradigm exhibit fractionalized excitations and emergent gauge fields. Here, we use entanglement microscopy--full tomography of the reduced density matrix of small subregions and subsequent extraction of their quantum correlations--to resolve the entanglement architecture near such exotic critical points. We focus on genuine multipartite entanglement (GME). Through unbiased quantum Monte Carlo sampling of RDMs across conventional O(2)/O(3) Wilson-Fisher transitions, and unconventional XY$^*$, and N\'eel-VBS transitions in (2+1)d, we discover a dichotomy: Landau criticality amplifies GME within compact subregions, while non-Landau criticality redistributes entanglement into larger, loopy configurations. Key signatures at non-Landau criticality include the absence of three-spin GME, and the loss of non-loopy entanglement in unicursal regions. Similar results in a critical resonating valence bond wavefunction confirm this multipartite entanglement structure as a common feature of emergent gauge theories. Our findings reveal a distinct entanglement architecture in beyond-Landau quantum critical theories.