Canonical Quantum Mpemba Effect in a Dissipative Qubit

Abstract The Mpemba effect, where a hotter system cools faster than a colder one under otherwise identical conditions, has been extensively studied in classical systems. In this work, we present the quantum analogue of the Mpemba effect using a dissipative qubit, which is referred to as the canonical quantum Mpemba effect . We demonstrate that, under identical conditions, the relaxation dynamics of a qubit initialized in a thermal state with a higher temperature can be exponentially faster than that of a colder thermal state. Strikingly, for a fixed Liouvillian, this acceleration can be selected solely by varying the initial temperature, rather than by applying a specially designed unitary transformation to the initial state. The existence and value of the critical temperature never-theless depend on the system and dissipation parameters. The relaxation is characterized as an overall cooling process: the system evolves from a higher-temperature, higher-energy thermal state toward a steady state with a lower effective temperature and energy, mirroring its classical counterpart. Last, we propose a practical classical-quantum hybrid algorithmic quantum circuit to simulate the dissipative evolution of thermal states and validate its experimental feasibility using superconducting qubits.