Dynamical heterogeneity and large deviations in the open quantum East glass model from tensor networks

Abstract

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the dissipative quantum East model via numerical tensor networks. We use matrix product states to represent evolution under quantum-jump unravellings for sizes beyond those accessible to exact diagonalization. This allows us to demonstrate that dynamical heterogeneity accompanies slow relaxation, in analogy with what is seen in classical glassy systems. Furthermore, using variational matrix product operators we (i) compute the spectral gap of the Lindbladian and show that glassiness is enhanced in the presence of weak quantum fluctuations compared to the pure classical case, and (ii) obtain the dynamical large deviations by calculating the leading eigenvector of the tilted Lindbladian and find clear evidence for a first-order active-inactive dynamical phase transition. We also show how to directly sample the rare quantum trajectories associated to the large deviations. Published by the American Physical Society 2025