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How do you compare quantum states when the math gets intractable?

Adriano Chialastri, Christoph Minz, Ko Sanders

May 26, 2026

Comparing two quantum states requires calculating relative modular Hamiltonians—mathematical objects so difficult to compute explicitly that physicists usually can't handle them. This work uses locality properties of quantum fields to estimate these quantities using a reference state that's easier to understand, effectively bounding the comparison from above or below. For scalar fields and certain spatial regions, the estimates recover exact results without requiring the explicit computation.
Published as Bounds on relative modular Hamiltonians in general QFT arXiv:2605.27198
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