Detecting quantum critical points at finite temperature via quantum teleportation

Abstract: We show that the quantum teleportation protocol is a powerful tool to study quantum phase transitions (QPTs) at finite temperatures. We consider a pair of spins from an infinite spin-1/2 chain (XXZ model) in equilibrium with a reservoir at temperature T as the resource used by Alice and Bob to implement the teleportation protocol. We show that the efficiency of this pair of spins to teleport a qubit is drastically affected after we cross a quantum critical point (QCP), even for high values of T. Also, we show that the present tool is as sharp as quantum discord (QD) to spotlight a QCP, where QD is the best finite T QCP detector known to date. Contrary to QD, however, we show that the present tool is easier to compute theoretically and has a direct experimental and operational meaning.