Succession of Ising criticality and its threshold in critical quantum Ising model subject to symmetric decoherence

Abstract

We investigate a mixed state quantum criticality in the Ising model under $X+ZZ$ decoherence. In the doubled Hilbert space formalism, the decohered state resides on the self-dual critical line of the quantum Ashkin-Teller (qAT) model, as a result of the specific choice of the decoherence channel. On the other hand, since the mixed state under $X+ZZ$ decoherence satisfies the Kramers-Wannier self-duality in a weak sense, the Ising criticality of the pure state can be partially preserved in the mixed system. By making use of the combination of the doubled Hilbert space formalism and matrix product states, we carry out extensive numerical study to elucidate the mixed state criticality. We find that under decoherence up to moderate strength, the mixed states on the critical line have properties of the Ising CFT, where $c=1/2$, $η=0.25$ and, $ν=1$. These values of the central charge and critical exponents contrast with the ones in the $c=1$ orbifold boson CFT describing the critical state of the qAT model. In addition, we also observe the threshold of the mixed Ising CFT. The strong decoherence washes out the remnant Ising criticality and induces strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking.