Entanglement dynamics and ergodicity breaking in a quantum cellular automaton

Abstract

Ergodicity breaking is observed in the blockade regime of Rydberg atoms arrays, in the form of low entanglement eigenstates known as scars, which fail to thermalize. The signature of these states persists in periodically driven systems, where they coexist with an extensive number of chaotic states. Here we investigate a quantum cellular automaton based on the classical rule that updates a site if its two neighbors are in the lower state. We show that the breaking of ergodicity extends to chaotic states. The dynamical breaking of ergodicity is controlled by chiral quasiparticle excitations which propagate entanglement. Evidence of nonlocal entanglement is found, showing that these nonthermal chaotic states may be useful to quantum computation.