Tight bounds on recurrence time in closed quantum systems

Abstract

The evolution of an isolated quantum system inevitably exhibits recurrence: the state returns to the vicinity of its initial condition after finite time. Despite its fundamental nature, a rigorous quantitative understanding of recurrence has been lacking. We establish upper bounds on the recurrence time, $t_{\mathrm{rec}} \lesssim t_{\mathrm{exit}}(\epsilon)(1/\epsilon)^d$, where $d$ is the Hilbert-space dimension, $\epsilon$ the neighborhood size, and $t_{\mathrm{exit}}(\epsilon)$ the escape time from this neighborhood. For pure states evolving under a Hamiltonian $H$, estimating $t_{\mathrm{exit}}$ is equivalent to an inverse quantum speed limit problem: finding upper bounds on the time a time-evolved state $\psi_t$ needs to depart from the $\epsilon$-vicinity of the initial state $\psi_0$. We provide a partial solution, showing that under mild assumptions $t_{\mathrm{exit}}(\epsilon) \approx \epsilon /\sqrt{ \Delta(H^2)}$, with $\Delta(H^2)$ the Hamiltonian variance in $\psi_0$. We show that our upper bound on $t_{\mathrm{rec}}$ is generically saturated for random Hamiltonians. Finally, we analyze the impact of coherence of the initial state in the eigenbasis of $H$ on recurrence behavior.