Observation of minimal and maximal speed limits for few and many-body states
Tracking the time evolution of a quantum state allows one to verify the thermalization rate or the propagation speed of correlations in generic quantum systems. Inspired by the energy-time uncertainty principle, bounds have been demonstrated on the maximal speed at which a quantum state can change, resulting in immediate and practical tasks. Based on a programmable superconducting quantum processor, we test the dynamics of various emulated quantum mechanical systems encompassing single- and many-body states. We show that one can test the known quantum speed limits and that modifying a single Hamiltonian parameter allows the observation of the crossover of the different bounds on the dynamics. We also unveil the observation of minimal quantum speed limits in addition to more common maximal ones, i.e., the lowest rate of change of a unitarily evolved quantum state. Our results show a comprehensive experimental characterization of quantum speed limits and enhance the understanding for their subsequent study in engineered non-unitary conditions.
Authors
- Ziqi Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8858-2193)
- Yiren Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2838-9552)
- Aosai Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0599-5361)
- Jinfeng Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4076-1608)
- Zhen Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6369-8010)
- Hang Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1852-4094)
- Chao Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1853-9392)
- Tingting Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6589-3706)
- Hekang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3914-4979)
- Yaozu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1137-4660)
- Liang Xiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8539-9510)
- Qiujiang Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-3405)
- Zehang Bao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9164-714X)
- Pengfei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8908-4228)
- Yu Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4138-8983)
- Feitong Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0789-8207)
- Fanhao Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5289-419X)
- H. Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5380-4297)
- Xuhao Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1318-8367)
- Jiarun Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3631-6774)
- Zitian Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8219-2311)
- Ke Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0307-5457)
- Jiachen Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6444-2416)
- Rubem Mondaini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8005-2297)
- Zhengyi Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5534-5167)
- Chen Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8881-4858)
- Shibo Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8546-4255)
- Xu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6102-0035)
- Lei Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7496-4302)
- Zixuan Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1089-9251)
- Chuanyu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5083-5239)
- Ning Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3884-9997)
- Hai‐Qing Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6497-8030)
Institutions
- Zhejiang University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Hefei University (CN)
- Zhejiang Lab (CN)
- Beijing Computational Science Research Center (CN)
- University of Houston (US)
- Zhejiang University of Technology (CN)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
- Lanzhou University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-02-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56451-3
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Quantum many-body systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.74