Entanglement-Ergodic Quantum Systems Equilibrate Exponentially Well

Wilming H, Goihl M, Roth I, Eisert J (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Physical Review Letters American Physical Society

Book Volume: 123

Article Number: 200604

Journal Issue: 20

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.200604

Abstract

One of the outstanding problems in nonequilibrium physics is to precisely understand when and how physically relevant observables in many-body systems equilibrate under unitary time evolution. General equilibration results show that equilibration is generic provided that the initial state has overlap with sufficiently many energy levels. But results not referring to typicality which show that natural initial states actually fulfill this condition are lacking. In this work, we present stringent results for equilibration for systems in which Rényi entanglement entropies in energy eigenstates with finite energy density are extensive for at least some, not necessarily connected, subsystems. Our results reverse the logic of common arguments, in that we derive equilibration from a weak condition akin to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis, which is usually attributed to thermalization in systems that are assumed to equilibrate in the first place. We put the findings into the context of studies of many-body localization and many-body scars.

Involved external institutions

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ) / Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich CH Switzerland (CH) Freie Universität Berlin DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Wilming, H., Goihl, M., Roth, I., & Eisert, J. (2019). Entanglement-Ergodic Quantum Systems Equilibrate Exponentially Well. Physical Review Letters, 123(20). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.200604

MLA:

Wilming, Henrik, et al. "Entanglement-Ergodic Quantum Systems Equilibrate Exponentially Well." Physical Review Letters 123.20 (2019).

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