Temporal entanglement transition in chaotic quantum many-body dynamics
Temporal entanglement (TE) of an influence matrix (IM) has been proposed as a measure of complexity of simulating dynamics of local observables in a many-body system. Foligno et al. [Phys. Rev. X 13, 041008 (2023)] recently argued that the TE in chaotic 1d quantum circuits obeys linear (volume-law) scaling with evolution time. To reconcile this apparent high complexity of IM with the rapid thermalization of local observables, here we study the relation between TE, non-Markovianity, and local temporal correlations for chaotic quantum baths. By exactly solving a random-unitary bath model, and bounding distillable entanglement between future and past degrees of freedom, we identify a regime where TE is extensive and reflects genuine non-Markovianity. This memory, however, is entirely contained in highly complex temporal correlations, and its effect on few-point temporal correlators is negligible. An IM coarse-graining procedure, reducing the allowed frequency of measurements of the probe system, results in a transition from volume- to {subvolume- (area or logarithmic)} law TE scaling. We demonstrate the generality of this TE transition in 1d circuits by analyzing the kicked Ising model analytically at dual-unitary points, as well as numerically away from them. This finding indicates that dynamics of local observables are fully captured by a subvolume-law IM. We provide evidence that the compact IM MPS obtained via standard compression algorithms accurately describes local~evolution.