Thermalization and Heating Dynamics in Open Generic Many-Body Systems

Yuto Ashida, Keiji Saito, and Masahito Ueda
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 170402 – Published 24 October 2018
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Abstract

The last decade has witnessed remarkable progress in our understanding of thermalization in isolated quantum systems. Combining the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis with quantum measurement theory, we extend the framework of quantum thermalization to open many-body systems. A generic many-body system subject to continuous observation is shown to thermalize at a single trajectory level. We show that the nonunitary nature of quantum measurement causes several unique thermalization mechanisms that are unseen in isolated systems. We present numerical evidence for our findings by applying our theory to specific models that can be experimentally realized in atom-cavity systems and with quantum gas microscopy. Our theory provides a general method to determine an effective temperature of quantum many-body systems subject to the Lindblad master equation and thus should be applicable to noisy dynamics or dissipative systems coupled to nonthermal Markovian environments as well as continuously monitored systems. Our work provides yet another insight into why thermodynamics emerges so universally.

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  • Received 29 June 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.170402

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsStatistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Yuto Ashida1, Keiji Saito2, and Masahito Ueda1,3

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
  • 2Department of Physics, Keio university, Hiyoshi 3-14-1, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Japan
  • 3RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

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Issue

Vol. 121, Iss. 17 — 26 October 2018

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