Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: At what rate does the von Neumann entropy of an ensemble of quantum states change under Hamiltonian evolution of its constituents? Bravyi proposed the small incremental mixing conjecture controlling the mixing rate of a binary ensemble $\{(1\!-\!p,ρ_1),(p,ρ_2)\}$ by $c\,\|{H}\|h_{2}(p)$ (with the binary entropy $h_{2}$). The proof of Bravyi's conjecture was subsequently reduced to the matrix inequality $\|[A,\log B]\|_{1}\!\leq\! c\,h_{2}(p)$ for positive trace-class operators $A\!\leq\! B$ with $\text{Tr} A\!=\!p$ and $\text{Tr} B\!=\!1$ on separable Hilbert spaces by Mariën, Audenaert, Van Acoleyen, and Verstraete, and they conjectured the optimal constant to be $c\!=\!1$. Here, I prove the latter conjecture using an exact integral representation of the commutator $[A,\log B]$ obtained from the operator layer cake theorem, due to Cheng and Liu. The result gives a sharp dimension-independent limit on how rapidly unitary evolution of one component can change the entropy of a binary quantum ensemble. It follows that mixing rates satisfy small incremental mixing with the optimal constant, and entangling rates of bipartite Hamiltonians are bounded by $(2\log d\!+\!1)\|H\|$. Moreover, the result corrects a conjecture by Lieb and Vershynina for mixing rates of general ensembles.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Stottmeister, Alexander
Institution: Leibniz University Hannover
Language: English
Topic: Quantum many-body systems
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7215117717