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arXiv:2504.00261 · Quantum Review Letters

From quantum-mechanical acceleration limits to upper bounds on fluctuation growth of observables in unitary dynamics

Carlo Cafaro, Walid Redjem, Paul M. Alsing, Newshaw Bahreyni, Christian Corda

Published Jan 1, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recently, the notion of a quantum acceleration limit has been proposed for any unitary time evolution of quantum systems governed by arbitrary nonstationary Hamiltonians. This limit articulates that the rate of change over time of the standard deviation of the Hamiltonian operator — representing the acceleration of quantum evolution within projective Hilbert space — is constrained by the standard deviation of the time-derivative of the Hamiltonian, expressed as σ ̇ H ≤ σ H ̇ . In this paper, we extend our earlier findings to encompass any observable A within the framework of unitary quantum dynamics, leading to the inequality σ ̇ A ≤ σ v A . This relationship signifies that the speed of the standard deviation of any observable is limited by the standard deviation of its associated velocity-like observable v A . Finally, for pedagogical purposes, we illustrate the relevance of our inequality by providing clear examples. We choose suitable observables related to the unitary dynamics of two-level quantum systems, as well as a harmonic oscillator within a finite-dimensional Fock space.

DOI
10.1016/j.qrl.2026.05.001

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The speed limit provides an upper bound for the dynamical evolution time of a quantum system. Here, we introduce the notion of quantum acceleration limit for unitary time evolution of quantum systems under time-dependent Hamiltonian. We prove that the quantum acceleration is upper bounded by the fluctuation in the derivative of the Hamiltonian. This leads to a universal quantum acceleration limit (QAL) which answers the question: What is the minimum time required for a quantum system to be accelerated from arbitrary initial state to final state? We illustrate the quantum acceleration limit for a two-level quantum system and show that the bound is indeed tight. This notion can have important applications in adiabatic quantum computing, quantum control and quantum thermodynamics.
The concept of quantum acceleration limit has been recently introduced for any unitary time evolution of quantum systems under arbitrary nonstationary Hamiltonians. While Alsing and Cafaro used the Robertson uncertainty relation in their derivation, employed the Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relation to find the upper bound on the temporal rate of change of the speed of quantum evolutions. In this paper, we provide a comparative analysis of these two alternative derivations for quantum systems specified by an arbitrary finite-dimensional projective Hilbert space. Furthermore, focusing on a geometric description of the quantum evolution of two-level quantum systems on a Bloch sphere under general time-dependent Hamiltonians, we find the most general conditions needed to attain the maximal upper bounds on the acceleration of the quantum evolution. In particular, these conditions are expressed explicitly in terms of two three-dimensional real vectors, the Bloch vector that corresponds to the evolving quantum state and the magnetic field vector that specifies the Hermitian Hamiltonian of the system. For pedagogical reasons, we illustrate our general findings for two-level quantum systems in explicit physical examples characterized by specific time-varying magnetic field configurations. Finally, we briefly comment on the extension of our considerations to higher-dimensional physical systems in both pure and mixed quantum states.
The upper bounds for the rate of fluctuation growth of an observable in both open and closed quantum systems have been studied actively recently. In our recent work we showed that the rate of fluctuation growth for an observable in a closed quantum system is upper bounded by the fluctuation of its corresponding velocity-like observable. That bound also indicated a tradeoff between the time derivatives of the mean and the standard deviation. In this paper we will look at open quantum systems in two cases. For the first case we find the generator of evolution for an open system employing both the Taylor expansion and the standard time-ordered evolution via the Dyson series, while in the second case we consider no specific information about the evolution of the system. We then find the rate of fluctuation growth in each case. Comparing the upper bounds for each case and considering the upper bound found for a closed system suggest that including more details by separating the contributions of the system and state dynamics seems to result in looser bounds for the rate of fluctuation growth.
Abstract The speed limit provides an upper bound for the dynamical evolution time of a quantum system. Here, we introduce the notion of quantum acceleration limit for unitary time evolution of quantum systems under time-dependent Hamiltonian. We prove that the quantum acceleration is upper bounded by the fluctuation in the derivative of the Hamiltonian. This leads to a universal quantum acceleration limit (QAL) which answers the question: What is the minimum time required for a quantum system to be accelerated from arbitrary initial speed to final speed? We illustrate the quantum acceleration limit for a two-level quantum system and show that the bound is indeed tight. This notion can have important applications in adiabatic quantum computing, quantum control and quantum thermodynamics.
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.
Quantum speed limits (QSLs) impose fundamental constraints on the evolution speed of quantum systems. For systems with time-independent Hamiltonians, the QSLs are intricately linked to the energy spectra of the initial state, which signify the generalization of the time-energy uncertainty relation. Based on arbitrary-order norms of the Hamiltonian, dual energies from inverted spectra, and the standard deviation of energy, different types of QSLs have been proposed, revealing three dynamical parameter regimes of quantum state evolution. Despite the theoretical advancements, a comprehensive experimental examination remains elusive. In this research, by introducing unified bounds suitable for all evolution times, we present the experimental verification to the QSLs in various scenarios with a superconducting circuit. We explore the dynamical evolution with regard to each parameter regime as well as the critical point by carefully engineering the initial-state population of the superconducting resonator. We test our unified bounds over finite-level states and infinite-level classical and nonclassical Gaussian states, which validates the criteria for the QSLs. Our work substantially deepens our comprehension of unitary quantum evolution.