Qubit vitrification and entanglement criticality on a quantum simulator

Many elusive quantum phenomena emerge from a quantum system interacting with its classical environment. Quantum simulators enable us to program this interaction by using measurement operations. Measurements generally remove part of the entanglement built between the qubits in a simulator. While in simple cases entanglement may disappear at a constant rate as we measure qubits one by one, the evolution of entanglement under measurements for a given class of quantum states is generally unknown. We show that consecutive measurements of qubits in a simulator can lead to criticality, separating two phases of entanglement. Using up to 48 qubits, we prepare an entangled superposition of ground states to a classical spin model. Progressively measuring the qubits drives the simulator through an observable vitrification point and into a spin glass phase of entanglement. Our findings suggest coupling to a classical environment may drive critical phenomena in more general quantum states. Non-equilibrium quantum many-body systems undergoing repeated measurements exhibit phase transitions in their entanglement properties. Here the authors use a superconducting quantum simulator to demonstrate an entanglement phase transition that can be mapped to a vitrification transition in the spin glass theory.