Hyper-acceleration of quantum thermalization dynamics by bypassing long-lived coherences: An analytical treatment

Abstract: We develop a perturbative technique for solving Markovian quantum dissipative dynamics, with the perturbation parameter being a small gap in the eigenspectrum. As an example, we apply the technique and straightforwardly obtain analytically the dynamics of a three-level system with quasidegenerate excited states, where quantum coherences persist for very long times, proportional to the inverse of the energy splitting squared. We then show how to bypass this long-lived coherent dynamics and accelerate the relaxation to thermal equilibration in a hyper-exponential manner, a Markovian quantum-assisted Mpemba-like effect. This hyper acceleration of the equilibration process manifests if the initial state is carefully prepared, such that its coherences precisely store the amount of population relaxing from the initial condition to the equilibrium state. Our analytical method for solving quantum dissipative dynamics readily provides equilibration timescales, and as such it reveals how coherent and incoherent effects interlace in the dynamics. It further advices on how to accelerate relaxation processes, which is desirable when long-lived quantum coherences stagnate dynamics.