In this work, we investigate the potential connection between entanglement and thermalization, as well as the dynamics of hadronization in QCD physics. Through simulations of quantum dynamics on classical hardware, we analyze the real-time response of the massive Schwinger model coupled to external sources, which serves as an analog for the production and fragmentation of quark jets. This analogy is justified by the shared properties of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking between the Schwinger model and QCD. We observe the growth of time-dependent entanglement between the produced jets, which is driven by the increasing number of contributing eigenstates of the reduced density matrix with sufficiently large and closely spaced eigenvalues. This growth is intrinsically linked to the process of thermalization. The emergent eigenstates are identified as meson-like bound states, and by tracking their temporal evolution, we are able to observe real-time hadronization. At mid-rapidity, the long-time values of local observables approach approximately constant values, indicating the onset of equilibrium and the approach to thermalization.
In this work, we investigate the potential connection between entanglement and thermalization, as well as the dynamics of hadronization in QCD physics. Through simulations of quantum dynamics on classical hardware, we analyze the real-time response of the massive Schwinger model coupled to external sources, which serves as an analog for the production and fragmentation of quark jets. This analogy is justified by the shared properties of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking between the Schwinger model and QCD. We observe the growth of time-dependent entanglement between the produced jets, which is driven by the increasing number of contributing eigenstates of the reduced density matrix with sufficiently large and closely spaced eigenvalues. This growth is intrinsically linked to the process of thermalization. The emergent eigenstates are identified as meson-like bound states, and by tracking their temporal evolution, we are able to observe real-time hadronization. At mid-rapidity, the long-time values of local observables approach approximately constant values, indicating the onset of equilibrium and the approach to thermalization.
The possible link between entanglement and thermalization, and the dynamics of hadronization are addressed by studying the real-time response of the massive Schwinger model coupled to external sources. This setup mimics the production and fragmentation of quark jets, as the Schwinger model and quantum chromodynamics (QCD) share the properties of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. By using simulations of quantum dynamics on classical hardware, we study the entanglement between the produced jets, and observe the growth of the corresponding entanglement entropy in time. This growth arises from the increased number of contributing eigenstates of the reduced density matrix with sufficiently large and close eigenvalues. We also investigate the physical nature of these eigenstates, and find that at early times they correspond to fermionic Fock states. We then observe the transition from these fermionic Fock states to mesonlike bound states as a function of time. In other words, we observe how hadronization develops in real time. At late times, the local observables at midrapidity (such as the fermion density and the electric field) approach approximately constant values, suggesting the onset of equilibrium and approach to thermalization. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We investigate the emergence of thermalization in a quantum-field-theoretic model mimicking the production of jets in QCD: the massive lattice Schwinger model coupled to external sources. Specifically, we compute the expectation values of local operators as functions of time and compare them to their thermal counterparts, quantify the overlap between the evolving density matrix and the thermal one, and compare the dynamics of the energy-momentum tensor to predictions from relativistic hydrodynamics. Through these studies, we find that the system approaches thermalization at late times and elucidate the mechanisms by which quantum entanglement drives thermalization in closed field-theoretic systems. Our results show how thermodynamic behavior emerges in real time from unitary quantum dynamics.
The thermalization of quark gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is a crucial theoretical question in understanding the onset of hydrodynamics, and in a broad sense, a key step to the exploration of thermalization in isolated quantum systems. Addressing this problem theoretically, in a first principle manner, requires a real-time, non-perturbative method. To this end, we carry out a fully quantum simulation on a classical hardware, of a massive Schwinger model, which well mimics QCD as it shares the important properties such as confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. We focus on the real-time evolution of the Wigner function, namely, the two-point correlation function, which approximates quark momentum distribution. In the context of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and the evolution of entropy, our solution reveals the emergence of quantum thermalization in quark-gluon plasma with a strong coupling constant, while thermalization fails progressively as a consequence of the gradually increased significance of quantum many-body scar states in a more weakly coupled system. More importantly, we observe the non-trivial role of the topological vacuum in thermalization, as the thermalization properties differ dramatically in the parity-even and parity-odd components of the Wigner function.
A framework for simulating the real-time dynamics of composite particles in a simple model of dense matter that is amenable to quantum computers is developed. As a demonstration, we perform classical simulations of heavy-hadrons propagating through a dense medium in the Schwinger model. Measurements of the time-dependent energy and charge density are used to identify mechanisms responsible for energy loss and hadron production (hadronization). A study of entanglement dynamics highlights the importance of quantum coherence between the particles that make up the dense medium. Throughout this work, care is taken to isolate, and remove, phenomena that arise solely from a finite lattice spacing. It is found that signatures of entanglement are more sensitive to lattice artifacts than other observables. Toward quantum simulations, we present an efficient method and the corresponding quantum circuits for preparing ground states in the presence of heavy mesons. These circuits are used to estimate the resources required to simulate in-medium energy loss and hadronization in the Schwinger model using quantum computers.
The onset of hydrodynamics in the hot medium created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is a crucial theoretical question. A first-principle simulation requires a real-time, non-perturbative calculation of the quantum system. In this Letter, we perform such simulations using the tensor network method, which enables large-scale quantum many-body simulations by retaining only the most essential quantum states for collective behaviors. We focus on the massive Schwinger model, a low-dimensional analog of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), as they share important properties such as confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. Starting from an initial state that puts a localized excitation atop the vacuum and mimics the energy deposition from colliding nuclei, we observe hydrodynamic behavior consistent with Bjorken flow in all relevant degrees of freedom: energy density, fluid velocity, and bulk pressure. The time scale for hydrodynamic onset aligns with the thermalization time of the quantum distribution function.
With the aim of studying nonperturbative out-of-equilibrium dynamics of high-energy particle collisions on quantum simulators, we investigate the scattering dynamics of lattice quantum electrodynamics in 1+1 dimensions. Working in the bosonized formulation of the model and in the thermodynamic limit, we use uniform-matrix-product-state tensor networks to construct multiparticle wave-packet states, evolve them in time, and detect outgoing particles post collision. This facilitates the numerical simulation of scattering experiments in both confined and deconfined regimes of the model at different energies, giving rise to rich phenomenology, including inelastic production of quark and meson states, meson disintegration, and dynamical string formation and breaking. We obtain elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections, together with time-resolved momentum and position distributions of the outgoing particles. Furthermore, we propose an analog circuit-QED implementation of the scattering process that is native to the platform, requires minimal ingredients and approximations, and enables practical schemes for particle wave-packet preparation and evolution. This study highlights the role of classical and quantum simulation in enhancing our understanding of scattering processes in quantum field theories in real time.