Abstract
We evaluate the complexity of the free scalar field by the operator approach in which the transformation matrix between the second quantization operators of the reference state and target state is regarded as the quantum gate. We first examine the system in which the reference state is two noninteracting oscillators with the same frequency while the target state is two interacting oscillators with frequency and . We calculate the geodesic length on the associated group manifold of gate matrix and reproduce the known value of ground-state complexity. Next, we study the complexity in the excited states. Although the gate matrix is very large we can transform it to a diagonal matrix and obtain the associated complexity. We explicitly calculate the complexity in several excited states and prove that the square of the geodesic length in the general state is . The results are extended to the couple harmonic oscillators which correspond to the lattice version of the free scalar field.
- Received 13 May 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.066013
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society