One indication of thermalization time is subsystem entanglement reaching thermal values. Recent studies on local quantum circuits reveal two exponential stages with decay rates $r_1$ and $r_2$ of the purity before and after thermalization. We provide an entanglement membrane theory interpretation, with $r_1$ corresponding to the domain wall free energy. Circuit geometry can lead to $r_1 < r_2$, producing a ``phantom eigenvalue". Competition between the domain wall and magnon leads to $r_2 < r_1$ when the magnon prevails. However, when the domain wall wins, this mechanism provides a practical approach for measuring entanglement growth through local correlation functions.
We explore the origin of the arrow of time in an isolated quantum system described by the Schroedinger equation. We provide an explanation from weak values in the configuration space, which are understood as operational properties obtained in the laboratory following a well-defined protocol. We show that quantum systems satisfying the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis can simultaneously provide thermalized ensemble expectation values and nonthermalized weak values of the momentum, both from the same operational probability distribution. The reason why weak values of the momentum may escape …
We study thermalization of a two-component Bose-Hubbard model by exact diagonalization. Initially the two components do not interact and are each at equilibrium but with different temperatures. As the on-site inter-component interaction is turned on, perfect thermalization occurs. Remarkably, not merely those simple "realistic" physical observables thermalize but even the density matrix of the \textit{whole} system---the time-averaged density matrix of the system can be well approximated by that of a canonical ensemble. A conjecture about this fact is put forward.
Even though foundations of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) are based on random matrix theory, physical Hamiltonians and observables substantially differ from random operators. One of the major challenges is to embed local integrals of motion (LIOMs) within the ETH. Here we focus on their impact on fluctuations and structure of the diagonal matrix elements of local observables. We first show that nonvanishing fluctuations entail the presence of LIOMs. Then we introduce a generic protocol to construct observables, subtracted by their projections on LIOMs as well as products of LIO…
Polynomial-time thermalization and Gibbs sampling from system-bath couplings
Univ Lyon, ENS Lyon, UCBL, CNRS, Inria, LIP（里昂大学，巴黎高等师范学院里昂分校，里昂第一大学，法国国家科学研究中心，法国信息与自动化研究所，里昂理工学院）；Instituto de Física Téorica UAM/CSIC（马德里自治大学/西班牙国家研究委员会理论物理研究所）；Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学数学科学系）；Inria, Télécom Paris - LTCI, Institut Polytechnique de Paris（法国信息与自动化研究所，巴黎电信学院通信与图像处理实验室，巴黎理工学院）
Exactly solvable models provide an opportunity to study different aspects of reduced quantum dynamics in detail. We consider the reduced dynamics of a single spin in finite XX and XY spin 1/2 chains. First we introduce a general expression describing the evolution of the reduced density matrix. This expression proves to be tractable when the combined closed system (i.e. open system plus environment) is integrable. Then we focus on comparing decoherence and thermalization timescales in the XX chain. We find that for a single spin these timescales are comparable, in contrast to what should be ex…
Despite the fact that a system created in relativistic heavy ion collisions is an isolated quantum system, which cannot increase its entropy in the course of unitary quantum evolution, hydrodynamical analysis of experimental data seems to indicate that the matter formed in the collisions is thermalized very quickly. Based on common consideration of hydrodynamics as an effective theory in the domain of slow- and long-length modes, we discuss the physical mechanisms responsible for the decoherence and emergence of the hydrodynamic behavior in such collisions, and demonstrate how such physical me…
We derive the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) from a random matrix Hamiltonian by extending the model introduced by J. M. Deutsch [Phys. Rev. A 43, 2046 (1991)]. We approximate the coupling between a subsystem and a many-body environment by means of a random Gaussian matrix. We show that a common assumption in the analysis of quantum chaotic systems, namely the treatment of eigenstates as independent random vectors, leads to inconsistent results. However, a consistent approach to the ETH can be developed by introducing an interaction between random wave-functions that arises as a re…
We use field-theoretic methods to explore the statistics of eigenfunctions of the Floquet operator for a large family of Floquet random quantum circuits. The correlation function of the quasienergy eigenstates is calculated and shown to exhibit random matrix circular unitary ensemble statistics, which is consistent with the analogue of Berry's conjecture for quantum circuits. This quantity determines all key metrics of quantum chaos, such as the spectral form factor and thermalizing time-dependence of the expectation value of an arbitrary observable. It also allows us to explicitly show that t…
The formation of gaps -- forbidden ranges in the values of a physical parameter -- is a ubiquitous feature of a variety of physical systems: from energy bandgaps of electrons in periodic lattices and their analogs in photonic, phononic, and plasmonic systems to pseudo energy gaps in aperiodic quasicrystals. Here, we report on a `thermalization' gap for light propagating in finite disordered structures characterized by disorder-immune chiral symmetry -- the appearance of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors in skew-symmetric pairs. In this class of systems, the span of sub- thermal photon statistic…
Recent realization of a kinetically-constrained chain of Rydberg atoms by Bernien et al. [Nature 551, 579 (2017)] resulted in the observation of unusual revivals in the many-body quantum dynamics. In our previous work [arXiv:1711.03528] such dynamics was attributed to the existence of "quantum scarred" eigenstates in the many-body spectrum of the experimentally realized model. Here we present a detailed study of the eigenstate properties of the same model. We find that the majority of the eigenstates exhibit anomalous thermalization: the observable expectation values converge to their Gibbs en…
We study quantum thermalization and thermal entanglement in the open quantum Rabi model (QRM), in which a two-level system and a single-mode bosonic field are coupled to either two individual heat baths or a common heat bath. By treating the QRM as an effective multilevel system and deriving global quantum master equations in the eigenstate representation of the QRM, we study the physical conditions for quantum thermalization of the open QRM. It is found that, in the individual heat-bath case, the QRM can only be thermalized when either the two heat baths have the same temperature or the QRM i…
An approach, differing from two commonly used methods (the stochastic \SE \ and the master equation \cite {Schlosshauer,BieleA}) but entrenched in the traditional density matrix formalism, is developed in a semi-classical setting, so as to go from the solutions of the time dependent \SE to decohering and thermalized states. This is achieved by utilizing the time-ergodicity, rather than the sampling- (or ensemble-) ergodicity, of physical systems. We introduce the formalism through a study of the Rabi model (a two level system coupled to an oscillator) and show that our semi-classical version e…
Quantum many-body dynamics generically results in increasing entanglement that eventually leads to thermalization of local observables. This makes the exact description of the dynamics complex despite the apparent simplicity of (high-temperature) thermal states. For accurate but approximate simulations one needs a way to keep track of essential (quantum) information while discarding inessential one. To this end, we first introduce the concept of the information lattice, which supplements the physical spatial lattice with an additional dimension and where a local Hamiltonian gives rise to well …
Geometric fragmentation and anomalous thermalization in cubic dimer model
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Frontier Materials on Earth and in Space, Functional, Granular, and Composite Materials（德国航空航天中心前沿地球与空间材料研究所功能颗粒及复合材料部门）；University of Southampton（南安普顿大学）；Wake Forest University（维克森林大学）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理前沿研究所）；TNG Technology Consulting GmbH（TNG技术咨询有限公司）
We numerically study two non-interacting fermion models, a quantum wire model and a Chern insulator model, governed by open system Lindblad dynamics. The physical setup consists of a unitarily evolving "bulk" coupled via its boundaries to two dissipative "leads". The open system dynamics is chosen to drive the leads to thermal equilibrium, and by choosing different temperatures and chemical potentials for the two leads we may drive the bulk into a non-equilibrium current carrying steady state. We report two main results in this context. First, we show that for an appropriate choice of dynamics…
