Thermalization from quantum entanglement: Jet simulations in the massive Schwinger model

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Abstract
We investigate the emergence of thermalization in a quantum-field-theoretic model mimicking the production of jets in QCD: the massive lattice Schwinger model coupled to external sources. Specifically, we compute the expectation values of local operators as functions of time and compare them to their thermal counterparts, quantify the overlap between the evolving density matrix and the thermal one, and compare the dynamics of the energy-momentum tensor to predictions from relativistic hydrodynamics. Through these studies, we find that the system approaches thermalization at late times and elucidate the mechanisms by which quantum entanglement drives thermalization in closed field-theoretic systems. Our results show how thermodynamic behavior emerges in real time from unitary quantum dynamics.
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Funding Information
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-681 SC0012704)
  • Office of Science
  • Nuclear Physics (DE-FG88ER41450, DE-SC0012704)
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (545261797)
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory (25-033B)
  • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2024YFA1610700)
  • Tsinghua University (043-531205006, 043-53330500)
  • Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (DE-SC0012704)

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