Explicit States with Two-sided Long-Range Magic
Abstract
Nonstabilizerness, or magic, is a necessary resource for quantum advantage beyond the classically simulatable Clifford framework. Recent works have begun to chart the structure of magic in many-body states, introducing the concepts of long-range magic -- nonstabilizerness that cannot be removed by finite-depth local unitary (FDU) circuits -- and the magic hierarchy, which classifies quantum circuits by alternating layers of Clifford and FDUs. In this work, we construct explicit states that provably possess two-sided long-range magic, a stronger form of magic meaning that they cannot be prepared by a Clifford circuit and a FDU in either order, thus placing them provably outside the first level of the magic hierarchy. Our examples include the ``magical cat" state, , and ground states of certain nonabelian topological orders. These results provide new examples and proof techniques for circuit complexity, and in doing so, reveal the connection between long-range magic, the structure of many-body phases, and the principles of quantum error correction.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.25023,
title = {Explicit States with Two-sided Long-Range Magic},
author = {Zhi Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.25023},
year = {2026}
}