The inverse Mpemba effect demonstrated on a single trapped ion qubit

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a quantum analog of the Mpemba effect on the simplest quantum system — a qubit. We show it exhibits an inverse effect, in which a cold qubit reaches a hot temperature faster than a hot qubit. Furthermore, a cold qubit can heat up exponentially faster, manifesting the strong version of the effect. This occurs only for sufficiently coherent systems, making this effect inherently quantum mechanical due to interference effects.

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