Fast Computational Deep Thermalization
Deep thermalization refers to the emergence of Haar-like randomness from quantum systems upon partial measurements. As a generalization of quantum thermalization, it is often associated with high complexity and entanglement. Here, we introduce computational deep thermalization and construct the fastest possible dynamics exhibiting it at infinite effective temperature. Our circuit dynamics produce quantum states with low entanglement in polylogarithmic depth that are indistinguishable from Haar random states to any computationally bounded observer. Importantly, the observer is allowed to request many copies of the same residual state obtained from partial projective measurements on the state-this condition is beyond the standard settings of quantum pseudorandomness but natural for deep thermalization. In cryptographic terms, these states are pseudorandom and pseudoentangled, and crucially, they retain these properties under local measurements. Our results demonstrate a new form of computational thermalization in which thermal-like behavior arises from structured quantum states endowed with cryptographic properties instead of from highly unstructured ensembles. The low resource complexity of preparing these states suggests scalable simulations of deep thermalization using quantum computers. Our Letter also motivates the study of computational quantum pseudorandomness beyond BQP observers.
Authors
- Shantanav Chakraborty (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0826-6391)
- Tudor Giurgică-Tiron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1780-1970)
- Soonwon Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1247-062X)
- Soumik Ghosh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-3296)
Institutions
- University of Chicago (US)
- Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IN)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-11-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/g3qz-b2lv
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.48