Slow thermalization from weak integrability breaking

An integrable system, in contrast with a generic ergodic system, has many conserved quantities that constrain its time evolution. When a small perturbation breaks these conservation laws, it is expected to eventually reach thermal equilibrium. Remarkably, we find that the time to reach equilibrium can be significantly longer than expected in many systems of interest.

References:

Weak integrability breaking perturbations of integrable models
Federica M. Surace, Olexei Motrunich

Phys. Rev. Research 5, 043019 (2023)
Robustness and eventual slow decay of bound states of interacting microwave photons in the Google Quantum AI experiment
Federica M. Surace, Olexei Motrunich

PRX Quantum 5, 010317 (2024)
Finite-size generators for weak integrability breaking perturbations in the Heisenberg chain
Sara Vanovac, Federica M. Surace, Olexei Motrunich

Phys. Rev. B 110, 144309 (2024)
Quasiconservation laws and suppressed transport in weakly interacting localized models
Jessica K. Jiang, Federica M. Surace, Olexei I. Motrunich

Phys. Rev. B 112, 184201 (2025)
Weak integrability breaking perturbations in classical integrable models on the lattice
Sara Vanovac, Catherine McCarthy, Federica M. Surace, Olexei Motrunich

arXiv:2603.11712 (2026)
Charge Transport Capacity as a Probe of Resonances in Models of Many-Body Localization
Jessica K. Jiang, Federica M. Surace, Olexei I. Motrunich

arXiv:2604.18710 (2026)

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