Polynomial-time thermalization and Gibbs sampling from system-bath couplings

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16154v1
• Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:55:52 GMT
• Title: Polynomial-time thermalization and Gibbs sampling from system-bath couplings
• Authors: Samuel Slezak, Matteo Scandi, Álvaro M. Alhambra, Daniel Stilck França, Cambyse Rouzé,
• Abstract summary: We study two processes: one characterizing a repeated-interaction Gibbs sampling algorithm, and another modeling open-body quantum thermalization.<n>We prove that both converge in time for several non-commuting systems, including high-temperature local lattices, weakly interacting fermions, and 1D spin chains.<n>Results demonstrate that simple dissipative quantum algorithms can prepare complex Gibbs states and that Lindblad dynamics accurately capture thermal relaxation.
• Score: 3.9407250051441403
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Many physical phenomena, including thermalization in open quantum systems and quantum Gibbs sampling, are modeled by Lindbladians approximating a system weakly coupled to a bath. Understanding the convergence speed of these Lindbladians to their steady states is crucial for bounding algorithmic runtimes and thermalization timescales. We study two such families of processes: one characterizing a repeated-interaction Gibbs sampling algorithm, and another modeling open many-body quantum thermalization. We prove that both converge in polynomial time for several non-commuting systems, including high-temperature local lattices, weakly interacting fermions, and 1D spin chains. These results demonstrate that simple dissipative quantum algorithms can prepare complex Gibbs states and that Lindblad dynamics accurately capture thermal relaxation. Our proofs rely on a novel technical result that extrapolates spectral gap lower bounds from quasi-local Lindbladians to the non-local generators governing these dynamics.

Related papers

• Average-case quantum complexity from glassiness [45.57609001239456]
  Glassiness -- a phenomenon in physics characterized by a rough free-energy landscape -- implies hardness for stable classical algorithms.<n>We prove that the standard notion of quantum glassiness based on replica symmetry breaking obstructs stable quantum algorithms for Gibbs sampling.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-10-09T17:37:33Z)
• Quantum Replica Exchange [3.8666327754965373]
  We introduce a quantum analogue of the replica exchange method.<n>We prove that it can accelerate mixing for a class of Hamiltonians with local energy barriers.<n>Our work provides a rigorous acceleration mechanism for quantum Gibbs preparation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-10-08T17:47:17Z)
• Rapid Mixing of Quantum Gibbs Samplers for Weakly-Interacting Quantum Systems [9.897633472657562]
  We analyse Lindbladians for Gibbs state preparation in many-body systems.<n>We show that these rapid mixing results are stable under perturbations.<n>Compared to prior spectral-gap-based results for fermions, we achieve exponentially faster mixing.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-10-06T15:54:05Z)
• Quantum Gibbs states are locally Markovian [1.9643748953805944]
  We show that for any Hamiltonian with a bounded interaction degree, the quantum Gibbs state is locally Markov at arbitrary temperature.<n>We introduce a regularization scheme for imaginary-time-evolved operators at arbitrarily low temperatures.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-04-03T01:54:42Z)
• Polynomial Time Quantum Gibbs Sampling for Fermi-Hubbard Model at any Temperature [9.62464358196899]
  We prove a constant gap of the perturbed Lindbladian corresponding to interacting fermions up to some maximal coupling strength.<n>This is achieved by using theorems about stability of the gap for lattice fermions.<n>As an application, we explain how to calculate partition functions for the considered systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-01-02T18:56:02Z)
• Efficiency of Dynamical Decoupling for (Almost) Any Spin-Boson Model [44.99833362998488]
  We analytically study the dynamical decoupling of a two-level system coupled with a structured bosonic environment.<n>We find sufficient conditions under which dynamical decoupling works for such systems.<n>Our bounds reproduce the correct scaling in various relevant system parameters.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-09-24T04:58:28Z)
• Quantum computational advantage with constant-temperature Gibbs sampling [1.1930434318557157]
  A quantum system coupled to a bath at some fixed, finite temperature converges to its Gibbs state. This thermalization process defines a natural, physically-motivated model of quantum computation. We consider sampling from the measurement outcome distribution of quantum Gibbs states at constant temperatures.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-04-23T00:29:21Z)
• Robust Extraction of Thermal Observables from State Sampling and Real-Time Dynamics on Quantum Computers [49.1574468325115]
  We introduce a technique that imposes constraints on the density of states, most notably its non-negativity, and show that this way, we can reliably extract Boltzmann weights from noisy time series. Our work enables the implementation of the time-series algorithm on present-day quantum computers to study finite temperature properties of many-body quantum systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-05-30T18:00:05Z)
• Quantum Thermal State Preparation [39.91303506884272]
  We introduce simple continuous-time quantum Gibbs samplers for simulating quantum master equations. We construct the first provably accurate and efficient algorithm for preparing certain purified Gibbs states. Our algorithms' costs have a provable dependence on temperature, accuracy, and the mixing time.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-03-31T17:29:56Z)
• Emergent pair localization in a many-body quantum spin system [0.0]
  Generically, non-integrable quantum systems are expected to thermalize as they comply with the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis. In the presence of strong disorder, the dynamics can possibly slow down to a degree that systems fail to thermalize on experimentally accessible timescales. We study an ensemble of Heisenberg spins with a tunable distribution of random coupling strengths realized by a Rydberg quantum simulator.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-07-28T16:31:18Z)
• Fast Thermalization from the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis [69.68937033275746]
  Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) has played a major role in understanding thermodynamic phenomena in closed quantum systems. This paper establishes a rigorous link between ETH and fast thermalization to the global Gibbs state. Our results explain finite-time thermalization in chaotic open quantum systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-12-14T18:48:31Z)
• Visualizing spinon Fermi surfaces with time-dependent spectroscopy [62.997667081978825]
  We propose applying time-dependent photo-emission spectroscopy, an established tool in solid state systems, in cold atom quantum simulators. We show in exact diagonalization simulations of the one-dimensional $t-J$ model that the spinons start to populate previously unoccupied states in an effective band structure. The dependence of the spectral function on the time after the pump pulse reveals collective interactions among spinons.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-05-27T18:00:02Z)
• Einselection from incompatible decoherence channels [62.997667081978825]
  We analyze an open quantum dynamics inspired by CQED experiments with two non-commuting Lindblad operators. We show that Fock states remain the most robust states to decoherence up to a critical coupling.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-01-29T14:15:19Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.