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Physical review. E

Open-systems tools for nonthermalizing closed quantum systems

Unnati Akhouri, Sarah E. Shandera, Jackson Henry

Published Aug 5, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We design several examples of constrained, symmetric quantum circuit dynamics that generate nonequilibrium steady states. The qubit networks maintain local memory of the initial conditions and display inhomogeneous subsystem dynamics over long times, clearly distinguishable from approximately thermalizing networks of the same size. Each network can be described as an ensemble of open systems, a collection of qubits evolving with phase-covariant dynamics. Constraints from the conservation law and global unitary dynamics of the entire network bound the distribution of single-qubit dynamics in the ensemble, but different steady states are distinguishable by several measures. We quantify the distance of the steady states from the homogeneous steady state and further characterize them using the complexity of their mutual information networks, the volume of state space explored, a thermodynamic utility measure using extractable work, and correlated structure in the occurrence of noncompletely positive qubit propagator maps.

DOI
10.1103/zt7h-fj8w

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We design several examples of constrained, symmetric quantum circuit dynamics that generate nonequilibrium steady states. The qubit networks maintain local memory of the initial conditions and display inhomogeneous subsystem dynamics over long times, clearly distinguishable from approximately thermalizing networks of the same size. Each network can be described as an ensemble of open systems, a collection of qubits evolving with phase-covariant dynamics. Constraints from the conservation law and global unitary dynamics of the entire network bound the distribution of single-qubit dynamics in the ensemble, but different steady states are distinguishable by several measures. We quantify the distance of the steady states from the homogeneous steady state and further characterize them using the complexity of their mutual information networks, the volume of state space explored, a thermodynamic utility measure using extractable work, and correlated structure in the occurrence of noncompletely positive qubit propagator maps.
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Excitation Flow, Positivity, and Fisher Information for Open Subsystems of an NNN-Qubit Network
We derive closed-form propagators for any KKK-qubit subsystem of a closed NNN-qubit network with a single conserved excitation. A single transition amplitude simultaneously controls excitation flow between subsystems, the positivity and complete positivity of every propagator, the entanglement entropy of every subsystem, and the quantum Fisher information for global parameters. Positivity and complete positivity coincide, determined solely by the direction of excitation flow, independently of subsystem size, coherence, or entanglement structure. A propagator is positive and completely positive if and only if it contracts the subsystem state toward its fixed point. The ensemble of propagators collectively constrains global properties inaccessible to any single subsystem. For single-qubit subsystems, we characterize the ensemble's fixed-point distribution and domain of positivity, finding a band of states that lies inside the positivity domain of every propagator yet is never visited by the physical dynamics. The quantum Fisher information decomposes into state and process contributions over any observation window [t1,t2][t_1,t_2][t1​,t2​], with the state contribution bounded while the process contribution grows secularly. The total Fisher information is minimal when all future propagators are nonpositive and not completely positive, and near its maximum when they are positive and completely positive.
We provide a systematic framework for constructing generic models of nonequilibrium quantum dynamics with a target stationary (mixed) state. Our framework identifies (almost) all combinations of Hamiltonian and dissipative dynamics that relax to a steady state of interest, generalizing the Davies’ generator for dissipative relaxation at finite temperature to nonequilibrium dynamics targeting arbitrary stationary states. We focus on Gibbs states of stabilizer Hamiltonians, identifying local Lindbladians compatible therewith by constraining the rates of dissipative and unitary processes. Moreover, given terms in the Lindbladian not compatible with the target state, our formalism identifies the operations – including syndrome measurements and local feedback – one must apply to correct these errors. Our methods also reveal new models of quantum dynamics: for example, we provide a “measurement-induced phase transition” in which measurable two-point functions exhibit critical (power-law) scaling with distance at a critical ratio of the transverse field and rate of measurement and feedback. Time-reversal symmetry – defined naturally within our formalism – can be broken both in effectively classical and intrinsically quantum ways. Our framework provides a systematic starting point for exploring the landscape of dynamical universality classes in open quantum systems, as well as identifying new protocols for quantum error correction.
The integrable system is constrained strictly by the conservation law during the time evolution, and the prethermal state from the nearly integrable system is also constrained by the conserved parameters (the constants of motion) with the corresponding generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE), which is indubitably a powerful tool in the prediction of the relaxation dynamics. For stochastic evolution dynamics with considerable noise, the two-point correlation of local operators (like the density of kinks or transverse magnetization correlators), which do not exhibit the thermal features, display the behaviors of nonthermalization and an asymptotic GGE. In fact it is an asymptotic quasi-steady state with an infinite temperature, therefore the required distance to the nonthermal steady state is in an infinite time average. In this paper, we unambiguously investigate the relaxation of a nonequilibrium system in a canonical ensemble for integrable and nonintegrable systems. Temporal behavior of the many-body quantum system and the corresponding linear-coupling between the harmonic oscillators are discussed. The matrix-method in entropy ensemble is utilized to discuss the boundary and the diagonalization algebraically. The approximation results for nonintegrable system under the considerable perturbations are also presented.
While the band theory of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and the dynamics they generate have received considerable recent interest, the quantum steady states of such models remain largely unexplored. Here, the authors systematically characterize such states for fermions and bosons using an open quantum system approach. Surprisingly, these steady states exhibit features that cannot be extracted readily from the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. This includes a macroscopic length scale which characterizes the steady-state occupation but differs from the localization length of the eigenvectors.
The integrable system is constrained strictly by the conservation law during the time evolution, and the nearly integrable system or nonintegrable system is also constrained by the conserved parameters (like the constants of motion) with corresponding generalized Gibbs ensemble (GGE) which is indubitability a powerful tool in the prediction of thr relaxation dynamics. For stochastic evolution dynamic with considerable noise, the obviously quantum or thermal correlations which don't exhibit the thermal behavior, (like the density of kinks or transverse magnetization correlators), display a asymptotic nonthermalization, and in fact it's a asymptotic quasisteady state with a infinte temperature, therefore the required distance to the nonthermal steady state is in a infinite time average. In this paper, we unambiguously investigate the relaxation of a nonequilibrium system in a canonical ensemble for integrable system or nonintegrable system, and the temporal behavior of many-body quantum system and the macroscopic system, as well as the corresponding linear-coupling between harmonic oscillators. Matrix-method in entropy ensemble is also utilized to discuss the boundary and the important diagonalization, the approximation by the perturbation theory is also obtained.