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Main Authors: Shang, Zhong-Xia, França, Daniel Stilck
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18533
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author Shang, Zhong-Xia
França, Daniel Stilck
author_facet Shang, Zhong-Xia
França, Daniel Stilck
contents The fundamental difference between closed and open quantum dynamics lies in their environmental interaction: closed systems are perfectly isolated and evolve reversibly under unitary Hamiltonian dynamics, whereas open systems continuously couple to an external bath, resulting in irreversible dissipation and information loss. In this work, we show internal Hamiltonian dynamics can be "faked`` via external pure dissipation, i.e., Lindbladians without a coherent Hamiltonian part. More concretely, we show that, in a GKSL representation with zero explicit Hamiltonian term but nontraceless jump operators, bounded-norm dissipative generators can approximate Hamiltonian dynamics within $ε$ error in diamond norm using $\mathcal{O}(t^2/ε)$ evolution time. We further prove that for time-independent dynamics this $\mathcal{O}(t^2/ε)$ scaling is in the worst case, necessary and optimal from a geometric perspective, which captures the fundamental decoherence cost for catching up with the speed of Hamiltonian dynamics. Our construction leads to various implications, including the BQP-completeness of purely dissipative dynamics even before reaching approximate equilibrium, a Zeno-adjacent state-independent freezing effect, the no super-quadratic fast-forwarding theorem of a class of purely dissipative dynamics, and reducing Lindbladian simulation cost via gauge changing.
format Preprint
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hamiltonian dynamics from pure dissipation
Shang, Zhong-Xia
França, Daniel Stilck
Quantum Physics
The fundamental difference between closed and open quantum dynamics lies in their environmental interaction: closed systems are perfectly isolated and evolve reversibly under unitary Hamiltonian dynamics, whereas open systems continuously couple to an external bath, resulting in irreversible dissipation and information loss. In this work, we show internal Hamiltonian dynamics can be "faked`` via external pure dissipation, i.e., Lindbladians without a coherent Hamiltonian part. More concretely, we show that, in a GKSL representation with zero explicit Hamiltonian term but nontraceless jump operators, bounded-norm dissipative generators can approximate Hamiltonian dynamics within $ε$ error in diamond norm using $\mathcal{O}(t^2/ε)$ evolution time. We further prove that for time-independent dynamics this $\mathcal{O}(t^2/ε)$ scaling is in the worst case, necessary and optimal from a geometric perspective, which captures the fundamental decoherence cost for catching up with the speed of Hamiltonian dynamics. Our construction leads to various implications, including the BQP-completeness of purely dissipative dynamics even before reaching approximate equilibrium, a Zeno-adjacent state-independent freezing effect, the no super-quadratic fast-forwarding theorem of a class of purely dissipative dynamics, and reducing Lindbladian simulation cost via gauge changing.
title Hamiltonian dynamics from pure dissipation
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.18533