Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The Unruh effect links acceleration to thermalization, providing a relativistic setting for anomalous quantum relaxation. We demonstrate a {\it relativistic} strong quantum Mpemba effect in the Unruh thermalization of a two-level detector coupled to a massless scalar field. For a fixed pair of isospectral initial states, relaxation curves that never cross in inertial motion exhibit a Mpemba crossing above a threshold acceleration. At a higher, precisely tuned acceleration, the initially farther state has zero overlap with the slowest decay mode and relaxes with a faster asymptotic exponential rate. We identify how competition between transition and dephasing channels governs the relaxation spectrum, where sufficiently strong longitudinal coupling enables acceleration to switch the relaxation bottleneck between population and coherence modes. We derive the spectral-switching condition and construct isospectral preparation protocols that eliminate slow-mode contributions within their physical domains. Our results establish acceleration as a control parameter for anomalous quantum relaxation, connecting relativistic quantum dynamics with nonequilibrium thermodynamics.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Liu, Zhilong, Tian, Zehua, Jing, Hui, Wang, Jieci
Institutions: Hangzhou Normal University, Hunan Normal University
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223138561