Topological preparation of non-stabilizer states and Clifford evolution in SU(2)1 Chern-Simons theory
A bstract We develop a topological framework for preparing families of non-stabilizer states, and computing their entanglement entropies, in SU (2) 1 Chern-Simons theory. Using the Kac-Moody algebra, we construct Pauli and Clifford operators as path integrals over 3-manifolds with Wilson loop insertions, enabling an explicit topological realization of W n and Dicke states, as well as their entanglement properties. For the genus-1 case, the modular SL (2 , ℤ) generators on a single torus boundary realize the standard Clifford generators. We further conjecture a higher-genus extension of this correspondence specifically for the Clifford orbits of W and Dicke states, in which the orbit of W n is represented by a sum over genus- g handlebodies with Dehn twists applied to each torus. Our results extend the known correspondence between Clifford structures and modular transformations, and demonstrate that non-stabilizer states can be understood as controlled deformations within the SU (2) 1 modular tensor category, providing a concrete example of how non-stabilizer quantum resources emerge from purely topological data.
Authors
- Howard J. Schnitzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7898-2855)
- William Munizzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-0251)
Institutions
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Brandeis University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Published
- 2026-09-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep09(2026)020
- Primary Topic
- Quantum many-body systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00