Finite Size Scaling of Mutual Information: A Scalable Simulation

Abstract: We develop a quantum Monte Carlo procedure to compute the Renyi mutual information of an interacting quantum many-body system at non-zero temperature. Performing simulations on a spin-1/2 XXZ model, we observe that for a subregion of fixed size embedded in a system of size L, the mutual information converges at large L to a limiting function which displays non-monotonic temperature behavior corresponding to the onset of correlations. For a region of size L/2 embedded in a system of size L, the mutual information divided by L converges to a limiting function of temperature, with apparently nontrivial corrections near critical points.