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arXiv:2606.00259

Geometric Instability and Self-Limitation in Driven Quantum Systems

A. M. Tishin

quant-phcond-mat.mes-hallSubmitted May 29, 2026• Announced Jun 2, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · May 29, 2026v2 · Jun 2, 2026
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Abstract

We develop a unified geometric framework for local non-adiabaticity in driven quantum systems. We show that the previously introduced AMT non adiabaticity parameter arises as a special realization of a more general geometric instability criterion governed by the normalized Fubini Study distinguishability speed. The local geometric evolution speed is identified as the physically relevant quantity controlling the onset of non-adiabatic instability. We introduce a universal dimensionless instability parameter measuring the competition between quantum-state evolution speed and spectral-gap protection. This quantity provides a local, gauge-invariant, and basis-independent criterion for arbitrary driven Hamiltonians. Near quantum critical points, the instability parameter diverges through inverse gap amplification, recovering the Kibble Zurek freeze-out condition directly from local geometric data. We prove that monotonic occupation-dependent nonlinear regulators geometrically compress the quantum metric, establishing a self-limitation theorem in which nonlinear spectral deformation confines the accessible region of projective Hilbert space under strong driving. The multimode extension yields a matrix-valued instability criterion that identifies collective instability channels invisible to scalar descriptions. The framework naturally extends to open quantum systems through the Bures metric and quantum Fisher geometry, where thermal mixing and Lindblad decay increase the instability threshold through geometric suppression of state distinguishability. The instability threshold further implies a universal geometric lower bound on coherent control time and quantum gate duration.

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46 pages, 1 Fig, 1 Table

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We develop a unified geometric framework for local non-adiabaticity in driven quantum systems. We show that the previously introduced AMT non adiabaticity parameter arises as a special realization of a more general geometric instability criterion governed by the normalized Fubini Study distinguishability speed. The local geometric evolution speed is identified as the physically relevant quantity controlling the onset of non-adiabatic instability.
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We prove that monotonic occupation-dependent nonlinear regulators geometrically compress the quantum metric, establishing a self-limitation theorem in which nonlinear spectral deformation confines the accessible region of projective Hilbert space under strong driving. The multimode extension yields a matrix-valued instability criterion that identifies collective instability channels invisible to scalar descriptions.
The framework naturally extends to open quantum systems through the Bures metric and quantum Fisher geometry, where thermal mixing and Lindblad decay increase the instability threshold through geometric suppression of state distinguishability. The instability threshold further implies a universal geometric lower bound on coherent control time and quantum gate duration.
Abstract Driven isolated quantum systems lack a universal local energy scale that characterizes the instantaneous intensity of coherent nonequilibrium evolution. Existing descriptions rely on transition probabilities, spectral gaps, excitation densities or long-time effective ensembles, but none of these quantities is determined solely by the geometry of the evolving quantum trajectory. Here we show that requiring locality, gauge invariance, basis independence and the correct energy dimension is sufficient to fix such a scale uniquely among first-order local scalars built from the unitarily invariant Riemannian line element of projective Hilbert space, and that projective Hilbert-space geometry provides it: for any smooth pure-state unitary evolution, the instantaneous Fubini–Study speed v_FS generates a local geometric energy E_geo=ℏv_FS, which is gauge invariant, basis independent and determined only by the local trajectory of the state. The same scale is the local fidelity-loss rate, coincides with the quantum-speed-limit energy scale, and governs the onset of non-adiabatic excitation. Beyond this energetic characterization, the hyperbolic structure of the evolution generator gives this energy a distinct thermodynamic representation, k_B T_geo=ℏκ_g/2π, whose 2π normalization is derived — not postulated — from the exact thermal scattering structure of the generator, by the same analytic-continuation mechanism that fixes the Unruh and Hawking temperatures. The resulting temperature saturates the Maldacena–Shenker–Stanford bound on chaos algebraically, a formal correspondence of the linearized single-mode dynamics rather than a demonstration of many-body chaos. Our results establish intrinsic geometric energy as a state-evolution variable of driven quantum systems and provide a common foundation for non-adiabatic excitation, geometric self-limitation and dynamical bounds on information scrambling.
We analyze state preparation within a restricted space of local control parameters between adiabatically connected states of control Hamiltonians. We formulate a conjecture that the time integral of energy fluctuations over the protocol duration is bounded from below by the geodesic length set by the quantum geometric tensor. The conjecture implies a geometric lower bound for the quantum speed limit (QSL). We prove the conjecture for arbitrary sufficiently slow protocols using adiabatic perturbation theory, and show that the bound is saturated by geodesic protocols, which keep the energy variance constant along the trajectory. Our conjecture implies that any optimal unit-fidelity protocol, even those which drive the system far from equilibrium, are fundamentally constrained by the quantum geometry of adiabatic evolution. When the control space includes all possible couplings, spanning the full Hilbert space, we recover the well-known Mandelstam-Tamm bound. However, using only accessible local controls to anneal in complex models such as glasses, or target individual excited states in quantum chaotic systems, the geometric bound for the QSL can be exponentially large in the system size due to a diverging geodesic length. We validate our conjecture both analytically by constructing counter-diabatic and fast-forward protocols for a three-level system, and numerically in non-integrable spin chains using optimal control.
We analyze state preparation within a restricted space of local control parameters between adiabatically connected states of control Hamiltonians.We formulate a conjecture that the time integral of energy fluctuations over the protocol duration is bounded from below by the geodesic length set by the quantum geometric tensor.The conjecture implies a geometric lower bound for the quantum speed limit (QSL).We prove the conjecture for arbitrary, sufficiently slow protocols using adiabatic perturbation theory and show that the bound is saturated by geodesic protocols, which keep the energy variance constant along the trajectory.Our conjecture implies that any optimal unit-fidelity protocol, even those that drive the system far from equilibrium, are fundamentally constrained by the quantum geometry of adiabatic evolution.When the control space includes all possible couplings, spanning the full Hilbert space, we recover the well-known Mandelstam-Tamm bound.However, using only accessible local controls to anneal in complex models such as glasses or to target individual excited states in quantum chaotic systems, the geometric bound for the quantum speed limit can be exponentially large in the system size due to a diverging geodesic length.We validate our conjecture both analytically by constructing counter-diabatic and fast-forward protocols for a three-level system, and numerically in nonintegrable spin chains and a nonlocal SYK model.
We develop a theory of adiabatic response for open systems governed by Lindblad evolutions. The theory determines the dependence of the response coefficients on the dephasing rates and allows for residual dissipation even when the ground state is protected by a spectral gap. We give quantum response a geometric interpretation in terms of Hilbert space projections: For a two level system and, more generally, for systems with suitable functional form of the dephasing, the dissipative and non-dissipative parts of the response are linked to a metric and to a symplectic form. The metric is the Fubini-Study metric and the symplectic form is the adiabatic curvature. When the metric and symplectic structures are compatible the non-dissipative part of the inverse matrix of response coefficients turns out to be immune to dephasing. We give three examples of physical systems whose quantum states induce compatible metric and symplectic structures on control space: The qubit, coherent states and a model of the integer quantum Hall effect.
We develop a theory of adiabatic response for open systems governed by Lindblad evolutions. The theory determines the dependence of the response coefficients on the dephasing rates and allows for residual dissipation even when the ground state is protected by a spectral gap . We give the quantum response a geometric interpretation in terms of Hilbert space projections: for a two-level system and, more generally, for systems with a suitable functional form of the dephasing, the dissipative and non-dissipative parts of the response are linked to a metric and to a symplectic form. The metric is the Fubini–Study metric and the symplectic form is the adiabatic curvature. When the metric and symplectic structures are compatible , the non-dissipative part of the inverse matrix of response coefficients turns out to be immune to dephasing . We give three examples of physical systems whose quantum states induce compatible metric and symplectic structures on control space: qubit, coherent states and a model of the integer quantum Hall effect.
Establishing quantitative adiabaticity criteria at finite temperature remains substantially less developed than in the pure-state setting, even though realistic quantum systems are never at absolute zero. Here, by combining a mixed-state quantum speed limit with mixed-state fidelity susceptibility within the Liouville-space formulation of quantum mechanics, we derive rigorous bounds on the Hilbert-Schmidt fidelity between mixed states. Focusing on protocols that drive an initial Gibbs state toward a quasi-Gibbs target, these bounds yield an explicit threshold driving rate for the onset of nonadiabaticity. For a broad class of local Hamiltonians in gapped phases, we show that, in the thermodynamic limit, the threshold driving rate factorizes into a system-size contribution that recovers the zero-temperature scaling and a universal temperature-dependent factor. The latter is exponentially close to unity at low temperature, whereas at high temperature it is linear in temperature. We verify the predicted scaling in several spin-1/2 chains by obtaining closed-form expressions for the threshold driving rate. Our results provide a practical and largely model-independent criterion for finite-temperature adiabaticity in driven many-body systems under closed-system unitary evolution.