Initial-state-dependent thermalization in open qubits

Abstract

We study, from a thermodynamic perspective, the equilibrium states of a qubit interacting with an arbitrary environment of dimension N>>2. We show that even in presence of memory about the initial state, in some cases the qubit can be considered in a thermal state characterized by an entanglement Hamiltonian, which encodes the effects of the environment, and an initial-state- dependent entanglement temperature that measures the degree of entanglement generated between the system and its environment. Geometrical aspects of the thermal states are studied, and the results are confirmed for the concrete case of the Quantum Walk on the Line.