The Boltzmann-Loschmidt dispute in 1876-1877 discussed the problem of time reversal of ther- malization from time reversible classical equations of motion. Here, 150 years later, we highlight this problem in the frame of quantum computing. A quantum protocol is proposed that allows to perform a time reversal of complex evolution in the regime of many-body quantum chaos with many qubits. The system represents an evolution of qubits on a square lattice with inter-qubit next-nearest static couplings with a driven pulsed magnetic field. The system entropy grows rapidly to maximal values but returns to initial small values after time reversal. This time reversal is shown to be stable with respect to quantum gate imperfections. However, similar to the Lorenz butterfly effect, there is the butterfly effect of qubit when inversion of only one qubit breaks time reversibility of the whole system. It is argued that this protocol is accessible to nowadays quantum computers and annealers with hundreds of qubits.
A legend tells that once Loschmidt asked Boltzmann on what happens to his statistical theory if one inverts the velocities of all particles, so that, due to the reversibility of Newton's equations, they return from the equilibrium to a nonequilibrium initial state. Boltzmann only replied ``then go and invert them''. This problem of the relationship between the microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of the physical world and time-reversibility has been hotly debated from the XIXth century up to nowadays. At present, no modern computer is able to perform Boltzmann's demand for a macroscopic number of particles. In addition, dynamical chaos implies exponential growth of any imprecision in the inversion that leads to practical irreversibility. Here we show that a quantum computer composed of a few tens of qubits, and operating even with moderate precision, can perform Boltzmann's demand for a macroscopic number of classical particles. Thus, even in the regime of dynamical chaos, a realistic quantum computer allows to rebuild a specific initial distribution from a macroscopic state given by thermodynamic laws.
Loschmidt's paradox asks why macroscopic irreversibility is universal despite the time-reversal symmetry of microscopic dynamics. We argue that irreversibility is not a property of the dynamics but of accessibility: chaotic evolution drives phase-space structure below the quantum resolution scale
ℓℏ, at a critical time
tc=λ−1ln(δ0/ℓℏ), after which the time-reversed microstate exists as a valid solution of Hamilton's equations but cannot be selected by any physically admissible operation. The mechanism operates entirely within the semiclassical regime
tc≤tE, where classical geometry is exact. This provides a dynamical resolution of the Loschmidt paradox.
The quantum foundation is established using a Krylov-complexity framework: we prove that for any
H(t)=H(−t), the quantum Lyapunov exponent satisfies
λLforward=λLbackward. The arrow of time is not in the dynamics. The mechanism predicts sigmoid fidelity decay, logarithmic scaling of
tc with
λ−1, and ensemble-size independence of the inaccessibility threshold -- all consistent with three decades of Loschmidt echo experiments and confirmed in a stadium-billiard simulation reported here. Underlying everything: quantum mechanics conserves information exactly. Entropy, defined as the logarithm of the multiplicity
Ω -- the number of possibilities consistent with the available information -- can only increase when information becomes operationally inaccessible. The second law reflects not a breakdown of microscopic reversibility, but the dynamical inaccessibility of the information required to reverse it.
Echoes are ubiquitous phenomena in several branches of physics, ranging from acoustics, optics, condensed matter and cold atoms to geophysics. They are at the base of a number of very useful experimental techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance, photon echo and time-reversal mirrors. Particularly interesting physical effects are obtained when the echo studies are performed on complex systems, either classically chaotic, disordered or many-body. Consequently, the term Loschmidt echo has been coined to designate and quantify the revival occurring when an imperfect time-reversal procedure is applied to a complex quantum system, or equivalently to characterize the stability of quantum evolution in the presence of perturbations. Here, we present the articles which discuss the work that has shaped the field in the past few years.