Observation of quantum strong Mpemba effect

Jie Zhang; Gang Xia; Chun-Wang Wu; Ting Chen; Qian Zhang; Yi Xie; Wen-Bo Su; Wei Wu; Cheng-Wei Qiu; Ping-Xing Chen; Weibin Li; Hui Jing; Yan-Li Zhou

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-54303-0

Observation of quantum strong Mpemba effect

Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 6;16(1):301. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54303-0.

Authors

Jie Zhang^#^{1

2

3}, Gang Xia^#¹, Chun-Wang Wu^{1

2

3}, Ting Chen^{1

2

3}, Qian Zhang⁴, Yi Xie^{1

2

3}, Wen-Bo Su¹, Wei Wu^{1

2

3}, Cheng-Wei Qiu⁵, Ping-Xing Chen^{1

2

3}, Weibin Li^{6

7}, Hui Jing^{8

9}, Yan-Li Zhou^{10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China.
² Hunan Key Laboratory of Mechanism and technology of Quantum Information, Changsha, China.
³ Hefei National Laboratory, Hefei, Anhui, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
⁵ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
⁶ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom. [email protected].
⁷ Centre for the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Quantum Non-equilibrium Systems, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom. [email protected].
⁸ Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China. [email protected].
⁹ College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China. [email protected].
¹⁰ Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, College of Science, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China. [email protected].
¹¹ Hunan Key Laboratory of Mechanism and technology of Quantum Information, Changsha, China. [email protected].
¹² Hefei National Laboratory, Hefei, Anhui, China. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39762250
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54303-0

Abstract

An ancient and counterintuitive phenomenon known as the Mpemba effect (water can cool faster when initially heated up) showcases the critical role of initial conditions in relaxation processes. How to realize and utilize this effect for speeding up relaxation is an important but challenging task in purely quantum system till now. Here, we experimentally study the strong Mpemba effect in a single trapped ion system in which an exponentially accelerated relaxation in time is observed by preparing an optimal quantum initial state with no excitation of the slowest decaying mode. Also, we demonstrate that the condition of realizing such effect coincides with the Liouvillian exceptional point, featuring the coalescence of both the eigenvalues and the eigenmodes of the systems. Our work provides an efficient strategy to engineer the dynamics of open quantum system, and suggests a link unexplored yet between the Mpemba effect and the non-Hermitian physics.

Abstract

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