2024/01/11 by Shahaf Aharony Shapira, Shapira, Shahaf Aharony, Yotam Shapira +11 · 33 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2401.05830
openalex publication_date 2024/01/11 · openalex created_date 2024/01/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The Mpemba effect is a counter-intuitive phenomena in which a hot system reaches a cold temperature faster than a colder system, under otherwise identical conditions. Here we propose a quantum analog of the Mpemba effect, on the simplest quantum system, a qubit. Specifically, we show it exhibits an inverse effect, in which a cold qubit reaches a hot temperature faster than a hot qubit. Furthermore, in our system a cold qubit can heat up exponentially faster, manifesting the strong version of the effect. This occurs only for sufficiently coherent systems, making this effect quantum mechanical, i.e. due to interference effects. We experimentally demonstrate our findings on a single 88Sr+ trapped ion qubit. The existence of this anomalous relaxation effect in simple quantum systems reveals its fundamentality, and may have a role in designing and operating quantum information processing devices.