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  • Open Access

Gauge and diffeomorphism invariance from quantum information principles

Claudia Núñez1, Miguel Pardina2, Manuel Asorey2, José Ignacio Latorre3, and Alba Cervera-Lierta4,*

  • *Contact author: alba.cervera@bsc.es
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 096019 – Published 26 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4gyj-l8bj

Abstract

Entanglement is a hallmark of quantum theory, yet it alone does not capture the full extent of quantum complexity: some highly entangled states can still be classically simulated. Nonclassical behavior also requires magic, the non-Clifford component that enables universal quantum computation. Here, we investigate whether the interplay between entanglement and magic-state resources constrains the structure of fundamental interactions. We study gluon-gluon and graviton-graviton scattering at tree level. We focus on the high-energy limit, where mass-dependent terms are negligible, and conformal symmetry is preserved. In this regime, all particles behave as massless degrees of freedom, allowing us to isolate their transverse helicities as two-qubit states. We explicitly break gauge and general covariance by modifying the quartic vertices and analyzing the resulting generation of entanglement and magic. We find that imposing maximal entanglement (MaxEnt) alone does not uniquely recover gauge-invariant and diffeomorphism-invariant interactions, but adding the condition of minimal, but nonzero, magic-state generation singles it out. Our results indicate that nature favors MaxEnt and low magic: maximal quantum correlations with limited non-Cliffordness, sufficient for universal quantum computing but close to classical simulability. This dual informational principle may underlie the emergence of gauge invariance in fundamental physics.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 096019– Published 26 May, 2026
  • Received 24 November 2025
  • Accepted 28 April 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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