Temporal Entanglement in Chaotic Quantum Circuits

The concept of space-evolution (or space-time duality) has emerged as a promising approach for studying quantum dynamics. The basic idea involves exchanging the roles of space and time, evolving the system using a space transfer matrix rather than the time evolution operator. The infinite-volume limit is then described by the fixed points of the latter transfer matrix, also known as influence matrices. To establish the potential of this method as a bona fide computational scheme, it is important to understand whether the influence matrices can be efficiently encoded in a classical computer. Here we begin this quest by presenting a systematic characterisation of their entanglement -- dubbed temporal entanglement -- in chaotic quantum systems. We consider the most general form of space-evolution, i.e., evolution in a generic space-like direction, and present two fundamental results. First, we show that temporal entanglement always follows a volume law in time. Second, we identify two marginal cases -- (i) pure space evolution in generic chaotic systems (ii) any space-like evolution in dual-unitary circuits -- where Rényi entropies with index larger than one are sub-linear in time while the von Neumann entanglement entropy grows linearly. We attribute this behaviour to the existence of a product state with large overlap with the influence matrices. This unexpected structure in the temporal entanglement spectrum might be the key to an efficient computational implementation of the space evolution.