MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship · 2026–2028 · Grant Agreement No. 101264565 CORDIS 

Overview & Research

Preparing complex quantum states is one of the central challenges of quantum simulation. A promising strategy is dissipative state preparation, where a system is coupled to an engineered environment that drives it towards a desired target state. While this approach can be robust against imperfections, the time required to reach the target remains a key limitation.

ASAP (Anomalous Thermalization for Accelerated Quantum State Preparation) explores how unusual relaxation phenomena can be turned into a resource for faster quantum state preparation. The central idea is inspired by the Mpemba effect, the counterintuitive phenomenon in which a system initially further from equilibrium can relax faster than one starting closer to it. By identifying specially chosen initial states that avoid the slowest relaxation processes, ASAP aims to substantially shorten preparation times and reduce the errors accumulated during the protocol. This could enable the preparation of complex states that have so far remained beyond reach, such as for instance eta-paired superconducting states in ultracold atoms.

The project develops this idea from fundamental theory to applications in both digital and analog quantum simulation.

WP1 · Faster preparation in non-interacting systems

The first work package develops the theoretical foundations of anomalous-thermalization-enhanced state preparation in quadratic quantum systems, where the dynamics can be studied analytically and at large system sizes. Using paradigmatic models such as the transverse-field Ising model and the Kitaev chain, the goal is to identify simple initial states that reach their target states substantially faster and to understand the fundamental trade-offs between preparation speed and the locality of the engineered dissipation.

WP2 · From simple models to interacting many-body systems

The second work package extends these ideas to interacting many-body systems, where relaxation becomes considerably more complex. Combining analytical insights with advanced tensor-network methods, ASAP investigates when anomalously fast relaxation can survive in large interacting systems and seeks general criteria for identifying states that can be prepared efficiently. The project will also explore the role of symmetries and more realistic, non-Markovian environments.

WP3 · Enhancing quantum simulation

The final work package brings the framework closer to experiment by translating the optimized preparation protocols to digital and analog quantum simulators. This includes implementations on gate-based quantum hardware as well as applications to ultracold atoms in optical lattices. A central goal is to explore whether faster dissipative protocols can enable the preparation of complex many-body states that remain difficult to access with conventional approaches.

Results & Outputs

ASAP PUBLICATIONS

Locality-Preparation Time Tradeoffs in Dissipative Quantum Systems
Philipp Westhoff, Sara Murciano, Mattia Moroder -- in preparation · WP1                                                                                                                   Deriving fundamental tradeoffs between the locality of engineered dissipation and the time required to prepare quantum states.

Generating Multipartite Entanglement via Structured-Bath Engineering
Baptiste Debecker, Philipp Westhoff, Sebastian Paeckel, John Martin, Mattia Moroder, François Damanet -- in preparation · WP2  Using structured environments to efficiently generate and stabilize multipartite entanglement in interacting quantum systems.

RELATED WORK

Digitally Optimized Initializations for Fast Thermodynamic Computing
Mattia Moroder, Felix C. Binder and John Goold,  in review at npj Unconventional Computing
Using Mpemba-inspired optimized initial states to accelerate relaxation-based thermodynamic computing.

Geometric optimality of entanglement-induced fast qubit reset
Davide Rinaldi, Mattia Moroder, Dario Gerace, Giacomo Guarnieri, Steve Campbell  -- in preparation
Merging insights from quantum geometry and the Mpemba effect to accelerate qubit reset

People - core project

People - main collaborators

• Philipp Westhoff, LMU Munich

• François Damanet, University of Liège

• Sara Murciano, CNRS and Université Paris-Saclay

• Baptiste Debecker, University of Liège

• Sebastian Paeckel, LMU Munich

• Gianluca Teza, University of Trieste

• Alessandro Summer, Alice & Bob

• Felix Binder, Trinity College Dublin

• Steve Campbell, University College Dublin

• Davide Rinaldi, Unversity of Pavia