Universal Bound and Phase Transition in Many-Body Fermionic Non-Gaussianity

Abstract

Fermionic non-Gaussianity is a resource for universal quantum computation that can be generated by interactions in quantum many-body systems. Using the magic R\'enyi entropy (MRE) as a measure of non-Gaussianity, we derive its universal upper bound and Haar mean, proving that typical Haar-random states attain the maximal MRE density of $\ln(4/3)$ per Majorana in the large-system limit. We also show that the MRE can differ extensively between states with identical covariance matrices. To investigate how non-Gaussianity grows toward this maximal density, we evolve a Gaussian state in imaginary and real time under the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Hamiltonian. By varying the imaginary- and real-time durations, we identify a first-order transition marked by a kink in the MRE density and spontaneous breaking of the permutation symmetry among the four copies used to evaluate the MRE. This transition represents a qualitative change in the non-Gaussianity of the state that is not reflected in the thermal free energy.