Entangled multiplets, asymmetry, and quantum Mpemba effect in dissipative systems

Abstract Recently, the entanglement asymmetry emerged as an informative tool to understand dynamical symmetry restoration in out-of-equilibrium quantum many-body systems after a quantum quench. For integrable systems the asymmetry can be understood in the space-time scaling limit via the quasiparticle picture, as it was pointed out in Ares et al (2023 Nat. Commun. 14 2036) . However, a quasiparticle picture for quantum quenches from generic initial states was still lacking. Here we conjecture a full-fledged quasiparticle picture for the charged moments of the reduced density matrix, which are the main ingredients to construct the asymmetry. Our formula works for quenches producing entangled multiplets of an arbitrary number of excitations. We benchmark our results in the XX spin chain. First, by using an elementary approach based on the multidimensional stationary phase approximation we provide an ab initio rigorous derivation of the dynamics of the charged moments for the quench treated in Ares et al (2023 SciPost Phys. 15 089). Then, we show that the same results can be straightforwardly obtained within our quasiparticle picture. As a byproduct of our analysis, we obtain a general criterion ensuring a vanishing entanglement asymmetry at long times. Next, by using the Lindblad master equation, we study the effect of gain and loss dissipation on the entanglement asymmetry. Specifically, we investigate the fate of the so-called quantum Mpemba effect (QME) in the presence of dissipation. We show that dissipation can induce QME even if unitary dynamics does not show it, and we provide a quasiparticle-based interpretation of the condition for the QME.