Breakdown of thermalization in quantum spin systems with long-range interactions
Abstract
Quantum thermalization of closed systems -- i.e. the relaxation of local properties to their thermodynamic value along the Hamiltonian evolution -- is generically expected in non-integrable systems at finite energy density. In this work we show that quantum spin systems with at least one spin component coupled through long-range ferromagnetic interactions, and a second spin component coupled to a field, cannot in general thermalize to a paramagnetic state whenever they have a finite, negative energy per spin. The long-range interactions we consider decay as a power law of the distance, ∼ r−α with α< d, where d is the number of spatial dimensions of the system. The lack of thermalization is generic to an infinite family of Hamiltonians, and it is not associated to any form of integrability. It can instead be understood by the anomalous features of the thermodynamics of the system in the paramagnetic phase, which cannot be reflected in the properties of the eigenstates. This leads to a breakdown of eigenstate typicality and of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Interestingly, the non-thermal states emerging at long times in the dynamics display long-range multipartite entanglement, elevating the breakdown of thermalization to a resource.
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BibTeX
@misc{caleca2026breakdown,
title = {{Breakdown of thermalization in quantum spin systems with long-range interactions}},
author = {Filippo Caleca and Fabio Mezzacapo and Tommaso Roscilde},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.15530},
eprint = {2610.15530},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15530},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Breakdown of thermalization in quantum spin systems with long-range interactions
AU - Filippo Caleca
AU - Fabio Mezzacapo
AU - Tommaso Roscilde
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.15530
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15530
AB - Quantum thermalization of closed systems -- i.e. the relaxation of local properties to their thermodynamic value along the Hamiltonian evolution -- is generically expected in non-integrable systems at finite energy density. In this work we show that quantum spin systems with at least one spin component coupled through long-range ferromagnetic interactions, and a second spin component coupled to a field, cannot in general thermalize to a paramagnetic state whenever they have a finite, negative energy per spin. The long-range interactions we consider decay as a power law of the distance, ∼ r^−α with α< d, where d is the number of spatial dimensions of the system. The lack of thermalization is generic to an infinite family of Hamiltonians, and it is not associated to any form of integrability. It can instead be understood by the anomalous features of the thermodynamics of the system in the paramagnetic phase, which cannot be reflected in the properties of the eigenstates. This leads to a breakdown of eigenstate typicality and of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Interestingly, the non-thermal states emerging at long times in the dynamics display long-range multipartite entanglement, elevating the breakdown of thermalization to a resource.
ER -