We consider a discrete quantum system coupled to a finite bath, which may consist of only one particle, in contrast to the standard baths which usually consist of continua of oscillators, spins, etc. We find that such finite baths may nevertheless equilibrate the system though not necessarily in the way predicted by standard open system techniques. This behavior results regardless of the initial state being correlated or not.
We theoretically investigate thermalization and spin diffusion driven by a quantum spin bath for a realistic solid-state NMR experiment. We consider polycrystalline L-alanine, and investigate how the spin polarization spreads among several $^{13}$C nuclear spins, which interact via dipole-dipole coupling with the bath of strongly dipolar-coupled $^1$H nuclear (proton) spins. We do this by using direct numerical simulation of the many-spin time-dependent Schrödinger equation. We find that, although the proton spins located near the carbon sites interact most strongly with the $^{13}$C spins, th…
The quantum thermalization of the Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium open-system cases is sdudied, in which the two subsystems, a two-level system and a single-mode bosonic field, are in contact with either two individual heat baths or a common heat bath. It is found that in the individual heat-bath case, the JC model can only be thermalized when either the two heat baths have the same temperature or the coupling of the JC system to one of the two baths is turned off. In the common heat-bath case, the JC system can be thermalized irrespective of the bath tempera…
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）
A class of autonomous quantum heat baths satisfying the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) criteria is proposed. We show that such systems are expected to cause thermal relaxation of much smaller quantum systems coupled to one of the baths local observables. The process of thermalization is examined through residual fluctuations of local observables of the bath around their thermal values predicted by ETH. It is shown that such fluctuations perturb the small quantum system causing its decoherence to the thermal state. As an example, we investigate theoretically and numerically thermali…
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…
We studied a single atom trapped in an optical tweezer interacting with a thermal bath of ultracold atoms of a different species. Because of the collisions between the trapped atom and the bath atoms, the trapped atom undergoes changes in its vibrational states occupation to reach thermal equilibrium with the bath. By using Monte Carlo simulations, we characterized the single atom's thermalization process, and we studied how this can be used for cooling. Our simulations demonstrate that, within known experimental limitations, it is feasible to cool a trapped single atom with a thermal bath.
Optimal (reversible) processes in thermodynamics can be modelled as step-by-step processes, where the system is successively thermalized with respect to different Hamiltonians by an external thermal bath. However, in practice interactions between system and thermal bath will take finite time, and precise control of their interaction is usually out of reach. Motivated by this observation, we consider finite-time and uncontrolled operations between system and bath, which result in thermalizations that are only partial in each step. We show that optimal processes can still be achieved for any non…
We derive a Lindblad master equation that approximates the dynamics of a Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model weakly coupled to a bosonic bath. By studying the time evolution of operators under the adjoint master equation we prove that, for large system sizes, these operators attain their thermal equilibrium expectation values in the long-time limit, and we calculate the rate at which these values are approached. Integrability of the LMG model prevents thermalization in the absence of a bath, and our work provides an explicit proof that the bath indeed restores thermalization. Imposing thermalizat…
The proof of the long-standing conjecture is presented that Markovian quantum master equations are at odds with quantum thermodynamics under conventional assumptions of fluctuation-dissipation theorems (implying a translation invariant dissipation). Specifically, except for identified systems, persistent system-bath correlations of at least one kind, spatial or temporal, are obligatory for thermalization. A systematic procedure is proposed to construct translation invariant bath models producing steady states that well-approximate thermal states. A quantum optical scheme for the laboratory ass…
Heat-Bath Algorithmic Cooling is a set of techniques for producing highly pure quantum systems by utilizing a surrounding heat-bath and unitary interactions. These techniques originally used the thermal environment only to fully thermalize ancillas at the environment temperature. Here we extend HBAC protocols by optimizing over the thermalization strategy. We find, for any $d$-dimensional system in an arbitrary initial state, provably optimal cooling protocols with surprisingly simple structure and exponential convergence to the ground state. Compared to the standard ones, these schemes can us…
We present a control scheme for quantum systems coupled to a thermal bath. We demonstrate state-to-state control between two Gibbs states. This scheme can be used to accelerate thermalization and cool the open system. Starting from a microscopic description, we derive the reduced system dynamics, leading to a non-adiabatic master equation. The equation contains non-trivial effects due to the non-adiabatic driving and bath interaction. These special features enable controlling the open system and accelerating the entropy changes. For a two-level system model, we obtain a general solution and in…
We investigate the evolution of a target qubit caused by its multiple random collisions with $N$-qubit clusters. Depending on the cluster state, the evolution of the target qubit may correspond to its effective interaction with a thermal bath, a coherent (laser) drive, or a squeezed bath. In cases where the target qubit relaxes to a thermal state its dynamics can exhibit a quantum advantage, whereby the target-qubit temperature can be scaled up proportionally to $N^2$ and the thermalization time can be shortened by a similar factor, provided the appropriate coherence in the cluster is prepared…
It is shown that by fitting a Markovian quantum master equation to the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation of a system of two spin-1/2 particles interacting with a bath of up to 34 spin-1/2 particles, the former can describe the dynamics of the two-spin system rather well. The fitting procedure that yields this Markovian quantum master equation accounts for all non-Markovian effects in as much the general structure of this equation allows and yields a description that is incompatible with the Lindblad equation.
Providing the microscopic behavior of a thermalization process has always been an intriguing issue. There are several models of thermalization, which often requires interaction of the system under consideration with the microscopic constituents of the macroscopic heat bath. With an aim to simulate such a thermalization process, here we look at the thermalization of a two-level quantum system under the action of a Markovian master equation corresponding to memory-less action of a heat bath, kept at a certain temperature, using a single-qubit ancilla. A two-qubit interaction Hamiltonian ($H_{th}…
We show that certain coherences, termed as heat-exchange coherences, which contribute to the thermalization process of a quantum probe in a repeated interactions scheme, can modify the spectral response of the probe system. We suggest to use the power spectrum as a way to experimentally assess the apparent temperature of non-thermal atomic clusters carrying such coherences and also prove that it is useful to measure the corresponding thermalization time of the probe, assuming some information is provided on the nature of the bath. We explore this idea in two examples in which the probe is assu…
We investigate the longstanding problem of thermalization of quantum systems coupled to an environment by focusing on a bistable quartic oscillator interacting with a finite number of harmonic oscillators. In order to overcome the exponential wall that one usually encounters in grid based approaches to solve the time-dependent Schrödinger equation of the extended system, methods based on the time-dependent variational principle are best suited. Here we will apply the method of coupled coherent states [D. V. Shalashilin and M. S. Child, J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 113}, 10028 (2000)]. By investigating …
If and how an isolated quantum system thermalizes despite its unitary time evolution is a long-standing, open problem of many-body physics. The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) postulates that thermalization happens at the level of individual eigenstates of a system's Hamiltonian. However, the ETH requires stringent conditions to be validated, and it does not address how the thermal state is reached dynamically from an inital non-equilibrium state. We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a double-well potential with an initial population imbalance. We find that the sy…
The presence of symmetries in a closed many-body quantum system results in integrability. For such integrable systems, complete thermalization does not occur. As a result, the system remains non-ergodic. On the other hand, a set of non-interacting atoms connected to a regular bosonic bath thermalizes. Here, we show that such atoms in a spatially-correlated thermal bath can show both the behavior depending on the temperature. At zero temperature, the bath has a large correlation length, and hence it acts as a common environment. In this condition, a set of weak symmetries exist, which prevent t…
Dirac-Frenkel variational method with Davydov D2 trial wavefunction is extended by introducing a thermalization algorithm and applied to simulate dynamics of a general open quantum system. The algorithm allows to control temperature variations of a harmonic finite size bath, when in contact with the quantum system. Thermalization of the bath vibrational modes is realised via stochastic scatterings, implemented as a discrete-time Bernoulli process with Poisson statistics. It controls bath temperature by steering vibrational modes' evolution towards their canonical thermal equilibrium. Numerical…
Unconventional Thermalization of a Localized Chain Interacting with an Ergodic Bath
Szkoła Doktorska Nauk Ścisłych i Przyrodniczych, Uniwersytet Jagielloński（雅盖隆大学自然科学博士学院）；Instytut Fizyki Teoretycznej, Wydział Fizyki, Astronomii i Informatyki Stosowanej, Uniwersytet Jagielloński（雅盖隆大学物理、天文学与应用信息学系理论物理研究所）；Univ. Toulouse, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique（图卢兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心，理论物理实验室）；Mark Kac Complex Systems Research Center, Jagiellonian University in Krakow（克拉科夫雅盖隆大学马克·卡克复杂系统研究中心）
We consider thermalization of a microscopic quantum system by interaction with a thermal bath. Our interest is the minimal size the bath can have while still being able to thermalize the system. Within a specific thermalization scheme we show that a single spin-1/2 can be fully thermalized by interaction with a bath that consists of just two other spin-1/2. The two bath spins are initially in a pure, entangled state, and the thermalizing interaction is a Heisenberg exchange-interaction of the system-spin with one of the bath spins. The time dependent coupling strength has to obey a single inte…
A system in thermal equilibrium with a bath will generally be in an athermal state, if the system-bath coupling is strong. In some cases, it will be possible to extract work from that athermal state, after disconnecting the system from the bath. We use this observation to devise a battery charging and storing unit, simply consisting of a system, acting as the battery, and a bath. The charging cycle---connect, let thermalize, disconnect, extract work---requires very little external control and the charged state of the battery, being a part of global thermal equilibrium, can be maintained indefi…
Thermalization in Spatially Extended Open Quantum Systems: Local versus Global Markovian Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences（马克斯·普朗克多学科科学研究所）；Universidad Complutense de Madrid（马德里康普顿斯大学）；University of Luxembourg（卢森堡大学）；Universidad de Chile（智利大学）
We present quantitative predictions for quantum simulator experiments on Ising models from trapped ions to Rydberg chains and show how the thermalization, and thus decoherence times, can be controlled by considering common, independent, and end-cap couplings to the bath. We find (i) independent baths enable more rapid thermalization in comparison to a common one; (ii) the thermalization timescale depends strongly on the position in the Ising phase diagram; (iii) for a common bath larger system sizes show a significant slow down in the thermalization process; and (iv) finite-size scaling indica…
Understanding under which conditions physical systems thermalize is a long-standing question in many-body physics. While generic quantum systems thermalize, there are known instances where thermalization is hindered, for example in many-body localized (MBL) systems. Here we introduce a class of stochastic collision models coupling a many-body system out of thermal equilibrium to an external heat bath. We derive upper and lower bounds on the size of the bath required to thermalize the system via such models, under certain assumptions on the Hamiltonian. We use these bounds, expressed in terms o…
The generalized amplitude damping (GAD) quantum channel implements the interaction between a qubit and an environment with arbitrary temperature and arbitrary interaction time. Here, we implement a photonic version of the GAD for the case of infinite interaction time (full thermalization). We also show that this quantum channel works as a thermal bath with controlled temperature.
Dynamics of large complex systems, such as relaxation towards equilibrium in classical statistical mechanics, often obeys a master equation. The equation significantly simplifies the complexities but describes essential information of occupation probabilities. A related fundamental question is the thermalization, a coherent evolution of an isolated many-body quantum state into a state that seems to be in thermal equilibrium. It is valuable to find an effective equation describing this complex dynamics. Here, we experimentally investigate the question by observing sudden quench dynamics of quan…
We study the thermalization of a scalar field $Φ$ coupled to two other scalar fields $χ_{1,2}$ that constitute a bath in thermal equilibrium. For a range of masses the $Φ$ propagator features threshold and infrared divergences, a vanishing residue at the (quasi) particle pole and vanishing \emph{on-shell} decay rates thereby preventing the equilibration of $Φ$ with the bath via on-shell processes. Inspired by the theory of quantum open systems we obtain a quantum master equation for the reduced density matrix of $Φ$ that includes the time dependence of bath correlations, yielding time dependen…
