Exponential decay of correlations implies area law (Q2514213)

In the present paper, it is shown, that the assumption of exponential decay of correlations in a chain of quantum systems implies an area law for the entanglement entropy in that system. To prove their main result, the authors invoke techniques which were developed and successfully applied before in the context of quantum information theory, such as decoupling results and the smooth entropy formalism used for finite blocklength analysis. Beside generalizing an earlier result obtained by Hastings regarding area laws for one-dimensional gapped Hamiltonian models [\textit{M.B. Hastings}, ``An area law for one-dimensional quantum systems'', J. Stat. Mech. Theory Exp. 2007, No. 8, Article ID P08024, p. 14 (2007; \url{doi:10.1088/1742-5468/2007/08/P08024})], the main result of the paper has the following other interesting implication. One-dimensional pure quantum states with exponential decay of correlations admit an efficient classical parameterization in terms of matrix product states with polynomial bond dimension. It is concluded, that quantum curcuits which show the assumed correlation behaviour can be simulated more or less classically.