Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

From Krylov complexity to observability: Capturing phase space dimension with applications in quantum reservoir computing

Saud Čindrak*, Kathy Lüdge, and Lina Jaurigue

  • *Contact author: saud.cindrak@tu-ilmenau.de

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042039 – Published 20 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/m9kq-wrln

Abstract

We demonstrate that time-evolved operators can construct a Krylov space to compute operator complexity and introduce Krylov observability as a measure of effective phase space dimension in quantum systems. We test Krylov observability in the framework of quantum reservoir computing and show that it closely mirrors information processing capacity, a data-driven expressivity metric, while achieving computation times that are orders of magnitude faster. Our results validate operator complexity and give the interpretation that data in a quantum reservoir are mapped onto the Krylov space.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

See Also

Engineering quantum reservoirs through Krylov complexity, expressivity, and observability

Saud Čindrak, Lina Jaurigue, and Kathy Lüdge
Phys. Rev. Research 7, 043190 (2025)

Article Text

References (83)

  1. D. E. Parker, X. Cao, A. Avdoshkin, T. Scaffidi, and E. Altman, A universal operator growth hypothesis, Phys. Rev. X 9, 041017 (2019).
  2. V. Balasubramanian, P. Caputa, J. M. Magan, and Q. Wu, Quantum chaos and the complexity of spread of states, Phys. Rev. D 106, 046007 (2022).
  3. V. Balasubramanian, J. M. Magan, and Q. Wu, Quantum chaos, integrability, and late times in the Krylov basis, Phys. Rev. E 111, 014218 (2025).
  4. B. Bhattacharjee, P. Nandy, and T. Pathak, Operator dynamics in Lindbladian SYK: A Krylov complexity perspective, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2024) 94.
  5. S. Jian, B. Swingle, and Z. Xian, Complexity growth of operators in the SYK model and in JT gravity, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2021) 14.
  6. P. Caputa and S. Datta, Operator growth in 2d CFT, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2021) 188.
  7. A. A. Nizami and A. W. Shrestha, Krylov construction and complexity for driven quantum systems, Phys. Rev. E 108, 054222 (2023).
  8. A. Bhattacharya, P. Nandy, P. P. Nath, and H. Sahu, Operator growth and Krylov construction in dissipative open quantum systems, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2022) 81.
  9. C. Liu, H. Tang, and H. Zhai, Krylov complexity in open quantum systems, Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 033085 (2023).
  10. S. E. Aguilar-Gutierrez and A. Rolph, Krylov complexity is not a measure of distance between states or operators, Phys. Rev. D 109, L081701 (2024).
  11. M. Alishahiha and S. Banerjee, A universal approach to Krylov state and operator complexities, SciPost Phys. 15, 080 (2023).
  12. T. Anegawa, N. Iizuka, and M. Nishida, Krylov complexity as an order parameter for deconfinement phase transitions at large N, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2024) 119.
  13. J. L. F. Barbón, E. Rabinovici, R. Shir, and R. Sinha, On the evolution of operator complexity beyond scrambling, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2019) 264.
  14. H. A. Camargo, V. Jahnke, K. Kim, and M. Nishida, Krylov complexity in free and interacting scalar field theories with bounded power spectrum, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2023) 226.
  15. P. Caputa, H. Jeong, S. Yi, J. F. Pedraza, and L. Qu, Krylov complexity of density matrix operators, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2024) 337.
  16. X. Cao, A statistical mechanism for operator growth, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 54, 144001 (2021).
  17. A. Chattopadhyay, A. Mitra, and H. J. R. van Zyl, Spread complexity as classical dilaton solutions, Phys. Rev. D 108, 025013 (2023).
  18. B. Craps, O. Evnin, and G. Pascuzzi, A relation between Krylov and Nielsen complexity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 160402 (2024).
  19. A. Dymarsky and M. Smolkin, Krylov complexity in conformal field theory, Phys. Rev. D 104, L081702 (2021).
  20. J. Erdmenger, S. Jian, and Z. Xian, Universal chaotic dynamics from Krylov space, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2023) 176.
  21. Z. Fan, Universal relation for operator complexity, Phys. Rev. A 105, 062210 (2022).
  22. M. Gautam, Kunal Pal, Kuntal Pal, A. Gill, N. Jaiswal, and T. Sarkar, Spread complexity evolution in quenched interacting quantum systems, Phys. Rev. B 109, 014312 (2024).
  23. W. Gilpin, Model scale versus domain knowledge in statistical forecasting of chaotic systems, Phys. Rev. Res. 5, 043252 (2023).
  24. S. Guo, Operator growth in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, arXiv:2208.13362.
  25. K. Hashimoto, K. Murata, N. Tanahashi, and R. Watanabe, Krylov complexity and chaos in quantum mechanics, J. High Energy Phys. 011 (2023) 40.
  26. S. He, P. H. C. Lau, Z. Xian, and L. Zhao, Quantum chaos, scrambling and operator growth in TT¯ deformed SYK models, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2022) 70.
  27. R. Heveling, J. Wang, and J. Gemmer, Numerically probing the universal operator growth hypothesis, Phys. Rev. E 106, 014152 (2022).
  28. K. Huh, H. Jeong, and J. F. Pedraza, Spread complexity in saddle-dominated scrambling, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2024) 137.
  29. N. Iizuka and M. Nishida, Krylov complexity in the IP matrix model, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2023) 065.
  30. J. Kim, J. Murugan, J. Olle, and D. Rosa, Operator delocalization in quantum networks, Phys. Rev. A 105, L010201 (2022).
  31. X. Li, Q. Zhu, C. Zhao, X. Duan, B. Zhao, X. Zhang, H. Ma, J. Sun, and W. Lin, Higher-order Granger reservoir computing: Simultaneously achieving scalable complex structures inference and accurate dynamics prediction, Nat. Commun. 15, 2506 (2024).
  32. H. W. Lin, The bulk Hilbert space of double scaled SYK, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2022) 60.
  33. J. M. Magan and J. Simón, On operator growth and emergent Poincaré symmetries, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2020) 71.
  34. W. Mück and Y. Yang, Krylov complexity and orthogonal polynomials, Nucl. Phys. B 984, 115948 (2022).
  35. S. Nandy, B. Mukherjee, A. Bhattacharyya, and A. Banerjee, Quantum state complexity meets many-body scars, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 36, 155601 (2024).
  36. M. A. Nielsen, M. R. Dowling, M. Gu, and A. C. Doherty, Quantum computation as geometry, Science 311, 1133 (2006).
  37. K. Pal, A. Gill, and T. Sarkar, Time evolution of spread complexity and statistics of work done in quantum quenches, Phys. Rev. B 108, 104311 (2023).
  38. D. Patramanis, Probing the entanglement of operator growth, Prog. Theor. Phys. 2022, 063A01 (2022).
  39. E. Rabinovici, A. Sánchez-Garrido, R. Shir, and J. Sonner, A bulk manifestation of Krylov complexity, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2023) 213.
  40. M. J. Vasli, K. B. Velni, M. R. M. Mozaffar, A. Mollabashi, and M. Alishahiha, Krylov complexity in Lifshitz-type scalar field theories, Eur. Phys. J. C 84, 235 (2024).
  41. S. Čindrak, A. Paschke, L. C. Jaurigue, and K. Lüdge, Measurable Krylov spaces and eigenenergy count in quantum state dynamics, J. High Energ. Phys. 10 (2024) 83.
  42. Y. Zhou, W. Xia, L. Li, and W. Li, Diagnosing quantum many-body chaos in non-Hermitian quantum spin chain via Krylov complexity, Phys. Rev. Res. 7, 033281 (2025).
  43. P. Nandy, A. S. Matsoukas-Roubeas, P. Martínez-Azcona, A. Dymarsky, and A. del Campo, Quantum dynamics in Krylov space: Methods and applications, Phys. Rep. 1125, 1 (2025).
  44. P. Suchsland, R. Moessner, and P. W. Claeys, Krylov complexity and Trotter transitions in unitary circuit dynamics, Phys. Rev. B 111, 014309 (2025).
  45. B. Bhattacharjee, X. Cao, P. Nandy, and T. Pathak, Krylov complexity in saddle-dominated scrambling, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2022) 174.
  46. B. Bhattacharjee, S. Sur, and P. Nandy, Probing quantum scars and weak ergodicity breaking through quantum complexity, Phys. Rev. B 106, 205150 (2022).
  47. S. Čindrak, L. C. Jaurigue, and K. Lüdge, companion paper, Engineering quantum reservoirs through Krylov complexity, expressivity, and observability, Phys. Rev. Res. 7, 043190 (2025).
  48. B. Craps, O. Evnin, and G. Pascuzzi, Multiseed Krylov complexity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 050402 (2025).
  49. H. Jaeger, The “echo state” approach to analysing and training recurrent neural networks, GMD Report 148, German National Research Institute for Computer Science, 2001, doi:10.24406/publica-fhg-291111.
  50. W. Maass, T. Natschläger, and H. Markram, Real-time computing without stable states: A new framework for neural computation based on perturbations, Neural Comput. 14, 2531 (2002).
  51. D. Verstraeten, B. Schrauwen, M. D'Haene, and D. Stroobandt, An experimental unification of reservoir computing methods, Neural Netw. 20, 391 (2007), .
  52. L. Appeltant, M. C. Soriano, G. Van der Sande, J. Danckaert, S. Massar, J. Dambre, B. Schrauwen, C. R. Mirasso, and I. Fischer, Information processing using a single dynamical node as complex system, Nat. Commun. 2, 468 (2011).
  53. K. Fujii and K. Nakajima, Harnessing disordered-ensemble quantum dynamics for machine learning, Phys. Rev. Appl. 8, 024030 (2017), .
  54. K. Nakajima, K. Fujii, M. Negoro, K. Mitarai, and M. Kitagawa, Boosting computational power through spatial multiplexing in quantum reservoir computing, Phys. Rev. Appl.11, 034021 (2019), .
  55. A. Kutvonen, K. Fujii, and T. Sagawa, Optimizing a quantum reservoir computer for time series prediction, Sci. Rep. 10, 14687 (2020).
  56. R. Martínez-Peña, G. L. Giorgi, J. Nokkala, M. C. Soriano, and R. Zambrini, Dynamical phase transitions in quantum reservoir computing, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 100502 (2021).
  57. W. Xia, J. Zou, X. Qiu, and X. Li, The reservoir learning power across quantum many-body localization transition, Front. Phys. 17, 33506 (2022).
  58. N. Götting, F. Lohof, and C. Gies, Exploring quantumness in quantum reservoir computing, Phys. Rev. A 108, 052427 (2023).
  59. J. Chen, H. I. Nurdin, and N. Yamamoto, Temporal information processing on noisy quantum computers, Phys. Rev. Appl. 14, 024065 (2020).
  60. Y. Suzuki, Q. Gao, K. C. Pradel, K. Yasuoka, and N. Yamamoto, Natural quantum reservoir computing for temporal information processing, Sci. Rep. 12, 1353 (2022), .
  61. P. Pfeffer, F. Heyder, and J. Schumacher, Hybrid quantum-classical reservoir computing of thermal convection flow, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 033176 (2022).
  62. T. Yasuda, Y. Suzuki, T. Kubota, K. Nakajima, Q. Gao, W. Zhang, S. Shimono, H. I. Nurdin, and N. Yamamoto, Quantum reservoir computing with repeated measurements on superconducting devices, arXiv:2310.06706.
  63. J. Nokkala, G. L. Giorgi, and R. Zambrini, Retrieving past quantum features with deep hybrid classical-quantum reservoir computing, Mach. Learn.: Sci. Technol. 5, 035022 (2024).
  64. A. H. Abbas, H. Abdel-Ghani, and I. S. Maksymov, Classical and quantum physical reservoir computing for onboard artificial intelligence systems: A perspective, arXiv:2407.04717.
  65. A. Sannia, R. Martínez-Peña, M. C. Soriano, G. L. Giorgi, and R. Zambrini, Dissipation as a resource for quantum reservoir computing, Quantum 8, 1291 (2024).
  66. D. Fry, A. Deshmukh, S. Y. Chen, V. Rastunkov, and V. Markov, Optimizing quantum noise-induced reservoir computing for nonlinear and chaotic time series prediction, Sci. Rep. 13, 19326 (2023).
  67. L. Domingo, G. Carlo, and F. Borondo, Taking advantage of noise in quantum reservoir computing, Sci. Rep. 13, 8790 (2023).
  68. P. Mujal, R. Martínez-Peña, G. L. Giorgi, M. C. Soriano, and R. Zambrini, Time-series quantum reservoir computing with weak and projective measurements, npj Quantum Inf. 9, 16 (2023).
  69. S. Čindrak, B. Donvil, K. Lüdge, and L. C. Jaurigue, Enhancing the performance of quantum reservoir computing and solving the time-complexity problem by artificial memory restriction, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 013051 (2024).
  70. O. Ahmed, F. Tennie, and L. Magri, Prediction of chaotic dynamics and extreme events: A recurrence-free quantum reservoir computing approach, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 043082 (2024).
  71. K. Kobayashi, K. Fujii, and N. Yamamoto, Feedback-driven quantum reservoir computing for time-series analysis, PRX Quantum 5, 040325 (2024).
  72. C. Zhu, P. J. Ehlers, H. I. Nurdin, and D. Soh, Practical and scalable quantum reservoir computing, Phys. Rev. Res. 7, 023290 (2025).
  73. N. Schütte, N. Götting, H. Müntinga, M. List, and C. Gies, Expressive limits of quantum reservoir computing, arXiv:2501.15528.
  74. M. Vetrano, G. Lo Monaco, L. Innocenti, S. Lorenzo, and G. M. Palma, Publisher Correction: State estimation with quantum extreme learning machines beyond the scrambling time, npj Quantum Inf. 11, 35 (2025).
  75. J. Dambre, D. Verstraeten, B. Schrauwen, and S. Massar, Information processing capacity of dynamical systems, Sci. Rep. 2, 514 (2012).
  76. B. Misra and E. C. G. Sudarshan, The Zeno's paradox in quantum theory, J. Math. Phys. 18, 756 (1977).
  77. P. Facchi and S. Pascazio, Quantum Zeno dynamics: Mathematical and physical aspects, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41, 493001 (2008).
  78. L. Domingo, F. Borondo, G. Scialchi, A. J. Roncaglia, G. G. Carlo, and D. A. Wisniacki, Quantum reservoir complexity by the Krylov evolution approach, Phys. Rev. A 110, 022446 (2024).
  79. T. Kubota, H. Takahashi, and K. Nakajima, Unifying framework for information processing in stochastically driven dynamical systems, Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 043135 (2021).
  80. V. Oganesyan and D. A. Huse, Localization of interacting fermions at high temperature, Phys. Rev. B 75, 155111 (2007).
  81. O. Bohigas, M. J. Giannoni, and C. Schmit, Characterization of chaotic quantum spectra and universality of level fluctuation laws, Phys. Rev. Lett. 52, 1 (1984).
  82. J. M. Deutsch, Quantum statistical mechanics in a closed system, Phys. Rev. A 43, 2046 (1991).
  83. M. Srednicki, The approach to thermal equilibrium in quantized chaotic systems, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 32, 1163 (1999).

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation