Work

Accelerating Quantum Relaxation via Temporary Reset: A Mpemba-Inspired Approach

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Slow relaxation processes spanning widely separated timescales pose fundamental challenges for probing steady-state properties and engineering functional quantum systems, such as quantum heat engines and quantum computing devices. We introduce a protocol that enables significant acceleration of relaxation in general Markovian open quantum systems by temporarily coupling the system to a reset channel, inspired by the Mpemba effect. Crucially, this acceleration persists even when the slowest decaying Lindbladian modes form complex-conjugate pairs. Unlike previous approaches, which typically target a single mode, our protocol may suppress multiple relaxation modes simultaneously. This framework provides a versatile and experimentally feasible tool for controlling relaxation timescales, with broad implications for quantum thermodynamics, computation, and state preparation.

Source: Physical Review Letters

DOI: 10.1103/g94p-7421

Authors: Ruicheng Bao, Zhonghuai Hou

Institutions: University of Science and Technology of China, The University of Tokyo

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Awards: Time Scales, Information, and Coarse-Graining in Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics and Their Applications to Biological Systems, G901699769