Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Gradient Echo Quantum Memory in Warm Atomic Vapor
Published on: November 11, 2013
Experimental Verification of Dissipation-Time Uncertainty Relation
L-L Yan1, J-W Zhang2,3,4, M-R Yun1
1School of Physics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
Abstract:
Dissipation is vital to any cyclic process in realistic systems. Recent research focus on nonequilibrium processes in stochastic systems has revealed a fundamental trade-off, called dissipation-time uncertainty relation, that entropy production rate associated with dissipation bounds the evolution pace of physical processes [Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 120604 (2020)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.125.120604]. Following the dissipative two-level model exemplified in the same Letter, we experimentally verify this fundamental trade-off in a single trapped ultracold ^{40}Ca^{+} ion using elaborately designed dissipative channels, along with a postprocessing method developed in the data analysis, to build the effective nonequilibrium stochastic evolutions for the energy transfer between two heat baths mediated by a qubit. Since the dissipation-time uncertainty relation imposes a constraint on the quantum speed regarding entropy flux, our observation provides the first experimental evidence confirming such a speed restriction from thermodynamics on quantum operations due to dissipation, which helps us further understand the role of thermodynamical characteristics played in quantum information processing.
Related Concept Videos
Propagation of Uncertainty from Systematic Error
Propagation of Uncertainty from Random Error
Uncertainty in Measurement: Reading Instruments
The Uncertainty Principle
Uncertainty in Measurement: Accuracy and Precision
Atomic Nuclei: Types of Nuclear Relaxation
In spin–lattice or longitudinal relaxation, the excited spins exchange energy with the surrounding lattice as they return to the lower energy level. Among several mechanisms that contribute to spin–lattice relaxation, magnetic dipolar interactions are significant. Here, the excited nucleus transfers...

