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Non-Equilibrium Quantum Many-Body Dynamics

A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Quantum Information".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 2268

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Physics, University Carlos III de Madrid, Avda. de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Spain
Interests: quantum control; quantum sensing and metrology; quantum thermodynamics; quantum criticality; quantum networks; quantum state engineering

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Guest Editor
Departamento de Física Teórica, Atómica y Óptica, Universidad de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Interests: statistical mechanics and quantum thermodynamics; quantum information science; quantum science and technology; quantum criticality; quantum control; quantum algorithms

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding non-equilibrium phenomena is a cornerstone of modern physics, essential not only for its explanatory power but also for its practical applications in leveraging quantum dynamics for specific objectives. One such example is the breakdown of adiabatic dynamics in critical phenomena, which leads to the emergence of topological defects and excitations within driven systems. These phenomena have significant implications for adiabatic quantum algorithms, the foundation of quantum annealing and adiabatic quantum computation (AQC).

In AQC, classical optimization problems are addressed by encoding the solution within the ground state of a many-body spin Hamiltonian. According to the adiabatic theorem, the system begins in the ground state of a trivial Hamiltonian, gradually transitioning to the problem Hamiltonian representing the optimization task. If the dynamics adhere to adiabatic principles, the system's final state becomes the ground state of the problem Hamiltonian, successfully solving the computational task. However, nonadiabatic excitations during this process can lead to errors, resulting in suboptimal solutions.

This Special Issue aims to showcase novel and groundbreaking results in the field of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics, shedding light on the latest developments and advancements in this rapidly evolving area of research. This Special Issue accepts unpublished, original papers and comprehensive reviews focused on (but not restricted to) the advances in non-equilibrium many-body dynamics.

Dr. Ricardo Puebla
Dr. Fernando Gómez-Ruiz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • quantum annealing
  • adiabatic quantum computation
  • Kibble–Zurek mechanism
  • driven quantum systems
  • collective quantum phenomena
  • exploiting quantum coherence

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 437 KiB  
Article
Critical Relaxation in the Quantum Yang–Lee Edge Singularity
by Yue-Mei Sun, Xinyu Wang and Liang-Jun Zhai
Entropy 2025, 27(2), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/e27020170 - 6 Feb 2025
Viewed by 561
Abstract
We study the relaxation dynamics near the critical points of the Yang–Lee edge singularities (YLESs) in the quantum Ising chain in an imaginary longitudinal field with a polarized initial state. We find that scaling behaviors are manifested in the relaxation process after a [...] Read more.
We study the relaxation dynamics near the critical points of the Yang–Lee edge singularities (YLESs) in the quantum Ising chain in an imaginary longitudinal field with a polarized initial state. We find that scaling behaviors are manifested in the relaxation process after a non-universal transient time. We show that for the paramagnetic Hamiltonian, the magnetization oscillates periodically with the period being inversely proportional to the gap between the lowest energy level; for the ferromagnetic Hamiltonian, the magnetization decays to a saturated value; while for the critical Hamiltonian, the magnetization increases linearly. A scaling theory is developed to describe these scaling properties. In this theory, we show that for a small- and medium-sized system, the scaling behavior is described by the (0+1)-dimensional YLES. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-Equilibrium Quantum Many-Body Dynamics)
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16 pages, 1508 KiB  
Article
Quantum Information Scrambling in Adiabatically Driven Critical Systems
by Ricardo Puebla and Fernando J. Gómez-Ruiz
Entropy 2024, 26(11), 951; https://doi.org/10.3390/e26110951 - 5 Nov 2024
Viewed by 951
Abstract
Quantum information scrambling refers to the spread of the initially stored information over many degrees of freedom of a quantum many-body system. Information scrambling is intimately linked to the thermalization of isolated quantum many-body systems, and has been typically studied in a sudden [...] Read more.
Quantum information scrambling refers to the spread of the initially stored information over many degrees of freedom of a quantum many-body system. Information scrambling is intimately linked to the thermalization of isolated quantum many-body systems, and has been typically studied in a sudden quench scenario. Here, we extend the notion of quantum information scrambling to critical quantum many-body systems undergoing an adiabatic evolution. In particular, we analyze how the symmetry-breaking information of an initial state is scrambled in adiabatically driven integrable systems, such as the Lipkin–Meshkov–Glick and quantum Rabi models. Following a time-dependent protocol that drives the system from symmetry-breaking to a normal phase, we show how the initial information is scrambled, even for perfect adiabatic evolutions, as indicated by the expectation value of a suitable observable. We detail the underlying mechanism for quantum information scrambling, its relation to ground- and excited-state quantum phase transitions, and quantify the degree of scrambling in terms of the number of eigenstates that participate in the encoding of the initial symmetry-breaking information. While the energy of the final state remains unaltered in an adiabatic protocol, the relative phases among eigenstates are scrambled, and so is the symmetry-breaking information. We show that a potential information retrieval, following a time-reversed protocol, is hindered by small perturbations, as indicated by a vanishingly small Loschmidt echo and out-of-time-ordered correlators. The reported phenomenon is amenable for its experimental verification, and may help in the understanding of information scrambling in critical quantum many-body systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-Equilibrium Quantum Many-Body Dynamics)
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