Tsung-Cheng Lu, Zhehao Zhang, Sagar Vijay and Timothy Hsieh
We propose a general framework for using local measurements, local unitaries, and nonlocal classical communication to construct quantum channels, which can efficiently prepare mixed states with long-range quantum order or quantum criticality. As an illustration, symmetry-protected topological phases can be universally converted into mixed states with long-range entanglement, which can undergo phase transitions with quantum critical correlations of local operators and a logarithmic scaling of the entanglement negativity, despite coexisting with volume-law entropy. Within the same framework, we present two applications using fermion occupation-number measurement to convert (i) spinful free fermions in one dimension into a quantum critical mixed state with enhanced algebraic correlations between spins and (ii) Chern insulators into a mixed state with critical quantum correlations in the bulk. The latter is an example where mixed-state quantum criticality can emerge from a gapped state of matter in constant depth using local quantum operations and nonlocal classical communication.