Thermally-driven quantum reservoir computing
Abstract
Heat generation limits computation, classical and quantum, from single logic gates to entire data centers. However, an in principle limiting physical factor can sometimes be turned into a resource. In reservoir computing, energy dissipation is what gives a reservoir its fading memory. Here, we introduce a paradigm where the data injection itself is encoded on the time-dependent temperature of a thermal bath. We derive an exact expression for the nonlinear response of any fixed readout, and prove a rigorous memory-nonlinearity trade-off which turns out to be a structural necessity, rather than a tunable dynamical regime, since the same coupling that injects data also enforces equilibration. We illustrate both results with a driven qubit, using a single free parameter, and with a pair of coupled qubits, where the breaking of a discrete symmetry opens a fifteen-dimensional space to a single observable, yet that observable alone recovers just over half of it. This refutes the misconception that large Hilbert spaces guarantee computational power. Our results relocate the memory-nonlinearity trade-off from the reservoir's dynamics to its measurement channel, pointing to observable choice and bath engineering (instead of Hamiltonian control) as the physical levers for a thermally-native quantum reservoir computer.
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BibTeX
@misc{werlang2026thermallydriven,
title = {{Thermally-driven quantum reservoir computing}},
author = {Thiago Werlang and Daniel Valente},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.07187},
eprint = {2611.07187},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07187},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Thermally-driven quantum reservoir computing
AU - Thiago Werlang
AU - Daniel Valente
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.07187
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07187
AB - Heat generation limits computation, classical and quantum, from single logic gates to entire data centers. However, an in principle limiting physical factor can sometimes be turned into a resource. In reservoir computing, energy dissipation is what gives a reservoir its fading memory. Here, we introduce a paradigm where the data injection itself is encoded on the time-dependent temperature of a thermal bath. We derive an exact expression for the nonlinear response of any fixed readout, and prove a rigorous memory-nonlinearity trade-off which turns out to be a structural necessity, rather than a tunable dynamical regime, since the same coupling that injects data also enforces equilibration. We illustrate both results with a driven qubit, using a single free parameter, and with a pair of coupled qubits, where the breaking of a discrete symmetry opens a fifteen-dimensional space to a single observable, yet that observable alone recovers just over half of it. This refutes the misconception that large Hilbert spaces guarantee computational power. Our results relocate the memory-nonlinearity trade-off from the reservoir's dynamics to its measurement channel, pointing to observable choice and bath engineering (instead of Hamiltonian control) as the physical levers for a thermally-native quantum reservoir computer.
ER -