{
  "abstract": "At a fixed thermal exposure, the same stabilizer processor can be classically simulable or quantum universal, depending on which environmental records its controller retains. We give an exact computational classification of energy-counting thermal-idle instruments in a quantum processor with ideal stabilizer control and independent local Markov baths. The relaxation time $T_1$, homogeneous coherence time $T_2$, and equilibrium excited-state population $p_e$ determine an exact computational boundary at $(1-p_e)T_2/T_1=1$. If every location lies at or below it, branchwise nonnegative stabilizer decompositions give an explicit efficient classical sampler for the adaptive circuit and its full time-resolved exchange record. Above it at a single repeatedly accessible location, a suitable idle duration and no-exchange conditioning supply distillable ancillas and enable universal quantum computation with polynomial overhead. At finite temperature on the resource side, erasing the record at a sufficiently long, unsplit exposure makes the averaged channel stabilizer measure-and-prepare, and even a terminal parity check then yields only simulable branches. Yet at that same exposure, retaining only the bit recording whether any exchange occurred still heralds distillable ancillas, because a thermal round trip restores the parity after its first exchange has already removed the coherence.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.16460",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Chenfeng Cao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qi Zhao"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/eg2sh29ym2ks8.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.16460",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "eg2sh29ym2ks8",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16460",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "quant-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1702|Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213410850",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.16460",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-15",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/eg2sh29ym2ks8.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
      "native_id": "2609.16460",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16460"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:quant-ph",
      "subfield": "quantum"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Environmental records unlock universal quantum computation from thermal decoherence",
  "title_text": "Environmental records unlock universal quantum computation from thermal decoherence",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:41Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/eg2sh29ym2ks8",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}