Switching metastable dynamics in many-body open quantum systems

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Abstract
Stochastic switching is a central phenomenon in dissipative many-body systems, offering a key probe of metastability across classical and quantum regimes. Here, we unravel the connection between switching dynamics and quantum metastability through the lens of spectral decomposition, quantum-jump simulations and the large deviation principles. By establishing a direct correspondence between classical fixed points and quantum metastable states, we distinguish trajectory-level, noise-induced metastability from spectrum-level, deterministic metastability in a Markovian open quantum system with bistability. The Liouvillian gap, the steady-state occupation ratio and the observed switching rates of the metastable states all exhibit exponential scaling with system size, giving rise to a quantum analogue of the Arrhenius law, with the inverse system size serving as an effective temperature. These results provide a unified picture of quantum bistability and clarify the relaxation processes of strongly interacting, dissipative quantum systems far from the thermodynamic limit.
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (12347102)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (12274131)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (12547183)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20233001)
  • National Science and Technology Major Project (2024ZD0300101)
  • Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (JYB2025XDXM502)
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/W015641/1)

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