Disentangling Haldane Phase by Generalized Clifford Circuits
Disentangling transformations play a central role in the classical simulation of quantum many-body systems, yet their analytic structure and underlying mechanism remain largely unexplored. Here, we study the structure of the disentangler in the Haldane phase of spin-1 systems using generalized Clifford circuits. To this end, we extend the Clifford-circuit-augmented matrix product states (CAMPS)-based density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method to spin-1 systems. Within this framework, we find that the local disentanglers optimized for the Haldane phase implement the generalized Kramers--Wannier (KW) transformation, and we analytically verify its optimality for the Affleck--Kennedy--Lieb--Tasaki (AKLT) state. Beyond reducing entanglement, the KW transformation maps the Haldane phase to a phase with spontaneously broken $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ symmetry. This mapping is distinct from the Kennedy--Tasaki transformation and provides a new unitary route from symmetry-protected topological order to symmetry breaking.