When irrelevance governs: dissipation-regression scaling in open quantum criticality
Abstract
The real-time dynamics of quantum phase transitions in open systems coupled to finite-temperature environments sits at the heart of contemporary condensed-matter and quantum-information science. Here, invoking a Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, we uncover that, within the coherence-dominated regime of critical real-time evolution, a dissipative coupling deemed naively irrelevant determines, counterintuitively, the longest timescale that holds sway. Possessing a well-defined temporal scaling dimension, it engenders a novel dissipation-regression scaling that systematically reproduces the unusual Kibble-Zurek scaling and relaxation observed in recent numerical studies. By contrast, dissipation-dominated dynamics behaves qualitatively differently. There, furthermore, we show that the discretized and diagonalized formulations of the same open quantum Ising chain realize distinct universality classes.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhong2026when,
title = {{When irrelevance governs: dissipation-regression scaling in open quantum criticality}},
author = {Fan Zhong},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.13033},
eprint = {2610.13033},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13033},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - When irrelevance governs: dissipation-regression scaling in open quantum criticality
AU - Fan Zhong
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.13033
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.13033
AB - The real-time dynamics of quantum phase transitions in open systems coupled to finite-temperature environments sits at the heart of contemporary condensed-matter and quantum-information science. Here, invoking a Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, we uncover that, within the coherence-dominated regime of critical real-time evolution, a dissipative coupling deemed naively irrelevant determines, counterintuitively, the longest timescale that holds sway. Possessing a well-defined temporal scaling dimension, it engenders a novel dissipation-regression scaling that systematically reproduces the unusual Kibble-Zurek scaling and relaxation observed in recent numerical studies. By contrast, dissipation-dominated dynamics behaves qualitatively differently. There, furthermore, we show that the discretized and diagonalized formulations of the same open quantum Ising chain realize distinct universality classes.
ER -