Intrinsic mixed-state topological order in a stabilizer system under stochastic decoherence: Strong-to-weak spontaneous symmetry breaking from a percolation point of view
Yoshihito Kuno, Takahiro Orito, Ikuo Ichinose · Physical review. B./Physical review. B · 2025
Decoherence on quantum many-body systems induces nontrivial mixed states with specific properties that have no counterparts in pure states. The authors clarify here the emergence of ``intrinsic mixed state topological order'' in a toric code state under decoherence, which accompanies exotic anyon proliferation. Furthermore, the authors find that the decoherence-induced phase transition in the stabilizer formalism is described by a percolation picture in two dimensions. The viewpoint of one-form symmetry and its spontaneous symmetry breaking plays an important role in this study.