Integrable spin chains and the Clifford group

Abstract

We construct new families of spin chain Hamiltonians that are local, integrable, and translationally invariant. To do so, we make use of the Clifford group that arises in quantum information theory. We consider translation invariant Clifford group transformations that can be described by matrix product operators (MPOs). We classify translation invariant Clifford group transformations that consist of a shift operator and an MPO of bond dimension two—this includes transformations that preserve locality of all Hamiltonians and those that lead to non-local images of particular operators but, nevertheless, preserve locality of certain Hamiltonians. We characterize translation invariant Clifford group transformations that take single-site Pauli operators to local operators on at most five sites—examples of Quantum Cellular Automata—leading to a discrete family of Hamiltonians that are equivalent to the canonical XXZ model under such transformations. For spin chains solvable by the algebraic Bethe ansatz, we explain how conjugating by an MPO affects the underlying integrable structure. This allows us to relate our results to the usual classifications of integrable Hamiltonians. We also treat the case of spin chains solvable by free fermions.