Photonic Mpemba effect

Abstract

The Mpemba effect is the counterintuitive phenomenon in statistical physics for which a far-from-equilibrium state can relax toward equilibrium faster than a state closer to equilibrium. This effect has raised a great curiosity since long time and has been studied extensively in many classical and quantum systems. Here it is shown that the Mpemba effect can be observed in optics as well. Specifically, the process of light diffusion in finite-sized photonic lattices under incoherent (dephasing) dynamics is considered. Rather surprisingly, it is shown that certain highly-localized initial light distributions can diffuse faster than initial broadly delocalized distributions. The effect is illustrated by considering random walk of optical pulses in fiber-based temporal mesh lattices, which should provide an experimentally-accessible setup for the demonstration of the Mpemba effect in optics.

A cool paper, 6 pages, 3 figures

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• Bosonic Mpemba effect with non-classical states of light
• Quantum Mpemba effect without global symmetries
• Intrinsic Quantum Mpemba Effect in Markovian Systems and Quantum Circuits
• Mpemba effect and super-accelerated thermalization in the damped quantum harmonic oscillator
• Tuning the Quantum Mpemba Effect in Isolated System by Initial State Engineering
• Laser Mpemba effect
• Expedited thermalization dynamics in incommensurate systems
• Skin Effect Induced Anomalous Dynamics from Charge-Fluctuating Initial States
• The Mpemba effect in quantum oscillating and two-level systems
• Quantum Mpemba effect in parity-time symmetric systems
• Dephasing-assisted diffusive dynamics in superconducting quantum circuits
• Dynamical Phase Transitions in Open Quantum Walks
• Quantum Pontus-Mpemba Effect Enabled by the Liouvillian Skin Effect
• A General Strategy for Realizing Mpemba Effects in Open Quantum Systems