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A Unified Framework for Locally Stable Phases

arXiv Quantum Physics
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⚡ Quantum Brief
Researchers Zhi Li, Raz Firanko, and Timothy Hsieh introduced a groundbreaking framework unifying pure and mixed quantum phases across equilibrium, non-equilibrium, and metastable systems in a May 2026 study. The team defines "locally stable states" as those where any local operation—even with post-selection—can be reversed via a local quantum channel, establishing a rigorous operational criterion for phase stability. They prove local stability equals short-range correlations, marked by decay in both standard correlations and conditional mutual information, linking microscopic behavior to macroscopic phase properties. The framework shows local stability ensures decay in nonlinear correlators (like fidelity) and purification correlations, effectively bridging the long-standing gap between mixed and pure quantum states. Two key side results emerge: post-selection on stable states can be implemented locally, and quantum Markov chains can be identified via locally computable nonlinear observables.
A Unified Framework for Locally Stable Phases

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Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.00088 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 30 Apr 2026] Title:A Unified Framework for Locally Stable Phases Authors:Zhi Li, Raz Firanko, Timothy H. Hsieh View a PDF of the paper titled A Unified Framework for Locally Stable Phases, by Zhi Li and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:We propose a unifying framework for characterizing pure and mixed state phases of matter across equilibrium, non equilibrium, and metastable regimes. We introduce the concept of locally stable states, defined by the operational property that any local operation (including post selection) can be reversed by a local channel. We prove that local stability is equivalent to a state being short range correlated, defined by the decay of both correlations and conditional mutual information. We demonstrate that these properties are invariant under locally reversible channels, thus defining locally stable phases. Furthermore, we prove that local stability implies both the decay of a family of nonlinear correlators, including the fidelity correlator, and the decay of correlations in the canonical purification, thus bridging the gap between mixed and pure states. Along the way, we establish two results which may be of independent interest: we show that post-selection on locally stable (short range correlated) states can be implemented via local channels and that quantum Markov chains can be characterized by the local computability of nonlinear observables. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Mathematical Physics (math-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2605.00088 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.00088v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.00088 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Timothy Hsieh [view email] [v1] Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:00:00 UTC (5,027 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled A Unified Framework for Locally Stable Phases, by Zhi Li and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.stat-mech math math-ph math.MP References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)

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Source: arXiv Quantum Physics