We show that the physical mechanism for the equilibration of closed quantum systems is dephasing, and identify the energy scales that determine the equilibration timescale of a given observable. For realistic physical systems (e.g those with local Hamiltonians), our arguments imply timescales that do not increase with the system size, in contrast to previously known upper bounds. In particular we show that, for such Hamiltonians, the matrix representation of local observables in the energy basis is banded, and that this property is crucial in order to derive equilibration times that are non-negligible in macroscopic systems. Finally, we give an intuitive interpretation to recent theorems on equilibration time-scales.
We show that the physical mechanism for the equilibration of closed quantum systems is dephasing, and identify the energy scales that determine the equilibration timescale of a given observable. For realistic physical systems (e.g those with local Hamiltonians), our arguments imply timescales that do not increase with the system size, in contrast to previously known upper bounds. In particular we show that, for such Hamiltonians, the matrix representation of local observables in the energy basis is banded, and that this property is crucial in order to derive equilibration times that are non-negligible in macroscopic systems. Finally, we give an intuitive interpretation to recent theorems on equilibration time-scales.
One of the main questions of research on quantum many-body systems following unitary out of equilibrium dynamics is to find out how local expectation values equilibrate in time. For non-interacting models, this question is rather well understood. However, the best known bounds for general quantum systems are vastly crude, scaling unfavorable with the system size. Nevertheless, empirical and numerical evidence suggests that for generic interacting many-body systems, generic local observables, and sufficiently well-behaved states, the equilibration time does not depend strongly on the system size, but only the precision with which this occurs does. In this discussion paper, we aim at giving very simple and plausible arguments for why this happens. While our discussion does not yield rigorous results about equilibration time scales, we believe that it helps to clarify the essential underlying mechanisms, the intuition and important figure of merits behind equilibration. We then connect our arguments to common assumptions and numerical results in the field of equilibration and thermalization of closed quantum systems, such as the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis as well as rigorous results on interacting quantum many-body systems. Finally, we complement our discussions with numerical results - both in the case of examples and counter-examples of equilibrating systems.
Understanding equilibration times in closed quantum systems is essential for characterising their approach to equilibrium. Chaotic many-body systems are paradigmatic in this context: they are expected to thermalise according to the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis and exhibit spectral properties well described by random matrix theory (RMT). While RMT successfully captures spectral correlations, its ability to provide quantitative predictions for equilibration timescales has remained largely unexplored. Here, we study equilibration within RMT using the framework of equilibration as dephasing, focusing on closed systems whose Hamiltonians are drawn from the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE). We derive an analytical expression that approximates the average equilibration time of the GUE and show that it is independent of both the initial state and the choice of observable, a consequence of the rotational invariance of the GUE. Numerical simulations confirm our analytical expression and demonstrate that our approximation is in close agreement with the true average equilibration time of the GUE. We find that the equilibration time decreases with system size and vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. This unphysical result indicates that the true equilibration timescale of realistic chaotic many-body systems must be dominated by physical features not captured by random matrix ensembles -- the GUE in particular.
We investigate early-time equilibration rates of observables in closed many-body quantum systems and compare them to those of two correlation functions, first introduced by Kubo and Srednicki. We explore whether these different rates coincide at a universal value that sets the timescales of processes at a finite energy density. We find evidence for this coincidence when the initial conditions are sufficiently generic, or typical. We quantify this with the effective dimension of the state and with a state-observable effective dimension, which estimate the number of energy levels that participate in the dynamics. Our findings are confirmed by proving that these different timescales coincide for dynamics generated by Haar-random Hamiltonians. This also allows to quantitatively understand the scope of previous theoretical results on equilibration timescales and on random matrix formalisms. We approach this problem with exact, full spectrum diagonalization. The numerics are carried out in a non-integrable Heisenberg-like Hamiltonian, and the dynamics are investigated for several pairs of observables and states.
Finding the equilibration time scale is an important open question in studying the equilibration of quantum systems. There are many kinds of systems that are unable to achieve equilibration, such as Anderson insulator, many-body localization systems and some integrable systems. For those systems that can reach equilibration, it was proved that there exists a general equilibration time scale. But these upper bounds are unrealistically long, and the lower bounds are also unrealistically short. How to get an accurate and general equilibration time scale is still unclear. In this paper, we study local equilibration time scales in quantum lattice systems. With the relation between equilibration and entanglement entropy, we define a new criterion for equilibration. This criterion is based on Rényi entropy, which is simpler for calculation. Moreover, the production of Rényi entropy is highly dependent on the spreading of information, and hence the tools developed in quantum information theory can help a lot. For the upper bound of equilibration time, we use the normal criterion of the time average ofthe fluctuation of the observation. This equilibration criterion is assessed with concrete observable operator, hence it is more accurate than the criterion of Rényi entropy. But this criterion is more complicated for calculation. With an appropriate assumption about the initial state, we present a new upper bound of equilibration time. Since the results are not constrained by the Hamiltonian of the system, this bound can be applied to various situations. If we are concerned with the local equilibration, we can limit the observation to a small region. If the whole system is big enough, the local observation would always find that the rest part is staying at the canonical ensemble, so that the local equilibration time will not increase with the size of whole system. When the local region is small enough, the upper bound of equilibration time can be much shorter. The local Rényi entropy has close relation to the propagation of information. The limitation of the speed of information propagation in a quantum lattice system can be given by the Lieb-Robinson bound, with which we evaluate the production rate of local 2-Rényi entropy. With these, we give a new lower bound of equilibration time for systems whose interactions are respectively short-range, exponentially-decaying and long-range. In earlier works, the lower bound of equilibration time is equal to the Lieb-Robinson time of the local system. In our rigorous proof, however, the lower bound is related to the strength of hopping, which also decides the Lieb-Robinson velocity. This means the equilibration time is related to the Lieb-Robinson time indeed. But the strictly equal relation may not hold. These new bounds are important to understanding the process of quantum equilibration.
Understanding the mechanisms responsible for the equilibration of isolated quantum many-body systems is a long-standing open problem. In this work we obtain a statistical relationship between the equilibration properties of Hamiltonians and the complexity of their eigenvectors, provided that a conjecture about the incompressibility of quantum circuits holds. We quantify the complexity by the size of the smallest quantum circuit mapping the local basis onto the energy eigenbasis. Specifically, we consider the set of all Hamiltonians having complexity C, and show that almost all such Hamiltonians equilibrate if C is superquadratic in the system size, which includes the fully random Hamiltonian case in the limit $C\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, and do not equilibrate if C is sublinear. We also provide a simple formula for the equilibration time scale in terms of the Fourier transform of the level density. Our results are statistical and, therefore, do not apply to specific Hamiltonians. Yet they establish a fundamental link between equilibration and complexity theory.
It has recently been shown that small quantum subsystems generically equilibrate, in the sense that they spend most of the time close to a fixed equilibrium state. This relies on just two assumptions: that the state is spread over many different energies, and that the Hamiltonian has non-degenerate energy gaps. Given the same assumptions, it has also been shown that closed systems equilibrate with respect to realistic measurements. We extend these results in two important ways. Firstly, we prove equilibration over a finite (rather than infinite) time-interval, allowing us to bound the equilibration time. Secondly, we weaken the non-degenerate energy gaps condition, showing that equilibration occurs provided that no energy gap is hugely degenerate.