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arXiv:2501.11049 · Physical Review A

Generalized entropic quantum speed limits

Jucelino Ferreira de Sousa, Diego Paiva Pires

Published Jun 9, 2025• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present a class of generalized entropic quantum speed limits based on $α$-$z$-Rényi relative entropy, a real-valued, contractive, two-parameter family of distinguishability measures. The quantum speed limit (QSL) falls into the class of Mandelstam-Tamm bounds, and applies to finite-dimensional quantum systems that undergo a general physical process, i.e., their effective dynamics can be modeled by unitary or nonunitary evolutions. The results cover pure or mixed, separable, and entangled probe quantum states. The QSL time depends on the smallest and largest eigenvalues of the probe and instantaneous states of the system, and its evaluation requires low computational cost. In addition, it is inversely proportional to the time-average of the Schatten speed of the instantaneous state, which in turn is fully characterized by the considered dynamics. We specialize our results to the case of unitary and nonunitary evolutions. In the former case, the QSL scales with the inverse of the energy fluctuations, while the latter depends on the Schatten $1$-norm of the rate of change of the quantum channel Kraus operators. We illustrate our findings for single-qubit and two-qubit states, and unitary and nonunitary evolutions. Our results may find applications in the study of entropic uncertainty relations, quantum metrology, and also entanglement entropies signaled by generalized entropies.

DOI
10.1103/ghr4-d2vb

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We present a class of generalized entropic quantum speed limits based on ααα-zzz-Rényi relative entropy, a real-valued, contractive, two-parameter family of distinguishability measures. The quantum speed limit (QSL) falls into the class of Mandelstam-Tamm bounds, and applies to finite-dimensional quantum systems that undergo a general physical process, i.e., their effective dynamics can be modeled by unitary or nonunitary evolutions. The results cover pure or mixed, separable, and entangled probe quantum states. The QSL time depends on the smallest and largest eigenvalues of the probe and instantaneous states of the system, and its evaluation requires low computational cost. In addition, it is inversely proportional to the time-average of the Schatten speed of the instantaneous state, which in turn is fully characterized by the considered dynamics. We specialize our results to the case of unitary and nonunitary evolutions. In the former case, the QSL scales with the inverse of the energy fluctuations, while the latter depends on the Schatten 111-norm of the rate of change of the quantum channel Kraus operators. We illustrate our findings for single-qubit and two-qubit states, and unitary and nonunitary evolutions. Our results may find applications in the study of entropic uncertainty relations, quantum metrology, and also entanglement entropies signaled by generalized entropies.
We discuss a class of quantum speed limits (QSLs) based on unified quantum ($\ensuremath{\alpha},\ensuremath{\mu}$)-entropy for nonunitary physical processes. The bounds depend on both the Schatten speed and the smallest eigenvalue of the evolved state and the two-parametric unified entropy. We specialize these results to quantum channels and non-Hermitian evolutions. In the first case, the QSL depends on the Kraus operators related to the quantum channel, while in the second case the speed limit is recast in terms of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. To illustrate these findings, we consider a single-qubit state evolving under the (i) amplitude damping channel and (ii) the nonunitary dynamics generated by a parity-time-reversal symmetric non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. The QSL is nonzero at earlier times, while it becomes loose as the smallest eigenvalue of the evolved state approaches zero. Furthermore, we investigate the interplay between unified entropies and speed limits for the reduced dynamics of quantum many-body systems. The unified entropy is upper bounded by the quantum fluctuations of the Hamiltonian of the system, while the QSL is nonzero when entanglement is created by the nonunitary evolution. Finally, we apply these results to the XXZ model and verify that the QSL asymptotically decreases as the system size increases. Our results find applications to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, quantum metrology, and equilibration of many-body systems.
Quantum speed limits (QSLs) establish intrinsic bounds on the minimum time required for the evolution of quantum systems. We present a class of QSLs formulated in terms of the two-parameter Sharma-Mittal entropy (SME), applicable to finite-dimensional systems evolving under general nonunitary dynamics. In the single-qubit case, the QSLs for both quantum channels and non-Hermitian dynamics are analyzed in detail. For many-body systems, we explore the role of SME-based bounds in characterizing the reduced dynamics and apply the results to the XXZ spin chain model. These entropy-based QSLs characterize fundamental limits on quantum evolution speeds and may be employed in contexts including entropic uncertainty relations, quantum metrology, coherent control and quantum sensing.
We discuss quantum speed limits (QSLs) for finite-dimensional quantum systems undergoing general physical processes. These QSLs were obtained using two families of entropic measures, namely the square root of the Jensen-Shannon divergence, which in turn defines a faithful distance of quantum states, and the square root of the quantum Jeffreys divergence. The results apply to both closed and open quantum systems, and are evaluated in terms of the Schatten speed of the evolved state, as well as cost functions that depend on the smallest and largest eigenvalues of both initial and instantaneous states of the quantum system. To illustrate our findings, we focus on the unitary and nonunitary dynamics of mixed single-qubit states. In the first case, we obtain speed limits aˋ la\textit{à la}aˋ la Mandelstam-Tamm that are inversely proportional to the variance of the Hamiltonian driving the evolution. In the second case, we set the nonunitary dynamics to be described by the noisy operations: depolarizing channel, phase damping channel, and generalized amplitude damping channel. We provide analytical results for the two entropic measures, present numerical simulations to support our results on the speed limits, comment on the tightness of the bounds, and provide a comparison with previous QSLs. Our results may find applications in the study of quantum thermodynamics, entropic uncertainty relations, and also complexity of many-body systems.
We establish a comprehensive theoretical framework for coherent quantum speed limits (QSLs), deriving fundamental bounds on the rate of quantum evolution that explicitly isolate the contribution of quantum coherence. By applying Hölder's inequality for matrix norms to the Liouville-von Neumann equation, we construct two infinite families of QSLs for general unitary dynamics. These bounds are characterized by coherence measures based on Schatten ppp-norms and Hellinger distance, respectively, defined with respect to the instantaneous energy eigenbasis. Unlike traditional Mandelstam-Tamm bounds, our approach disentangles the quantum state's coherence structure from the Hamiltonian's energy scale. Using the Landau-Zener model accelerated by shortcuts to adiabaticity, we demonstrate that coherence functions as a critical kinematic resource: achieving faster evolution entails maintaining a state with high coherence relative to the instantaneous basis. Our results provide a resource-theoretic perspective on time-energy uncertainty, offering insights into the fundamental limits of quantum control and information processing.
Quantum speed limits (QSLs) identify fundamental time scales of physical processes by providing lower bounds on the rate of change of a quantum state or the expectation value of an observable. We introduce a generalization of QSL for unitary operator flows, which are ubiquitous in physics and relevant for applications in both the quantum and classical domains. We derive two types of QSLs and assess the existence of a crossover between them, that we illustrate with a qubit and a random matrix Hamiltonian, as canonical examples. We further apply our results to the time evolution of autocorrelation functions, obtaining computable constraints on the linear dynamical response of quantum systems out of equilibrium and the quantum Fisher information governing the precision in quantum parameter estimation.
In this work, we investigate the role of functionals of generalized fidelity measures in deriving quantum speed limits (QSLs) within a geometric approach. We establish a general theoretical framework and show that, once a specific generalized fidelity is selected, the resulting Margolus-Levitin and Mandelstam-Tamm QSLs for both unitary and nonunitary (Lindblad-type) dynamics depend solely on the chosen fidelity measure. We prove that any monotone, differentiable reparametrization of the chosen fidelity yields exactly the same Margolus-Levitin and Mandelstam-Tamm-type QSL, rendering the QSLs invariant under such transformations and thereby unifying fidelity- and metric-induced geometric formulations. This result highlights the limitations of improving QSLs through functional transformations of fidelity and indicates that genuine improvements must arise from alternative fidelity definitions. We further show that several QSLs reported in the literature are encompassed by our framework and discuss possible extensions based on other generalized fidelity measures beyond those explicitly analyzed. In addition, we consider the damped Jaynes-Cummings model as a concrete physical setting to explore the behavior of the QSLs discussed in this work and analyze their regime-dependent features.