Cooling the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model

We present a simple and efficient quantum experimental protocol to cool the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model to low temperatures. Our protocol utilizes local couplings between two copies of an SYK model to create a gapped adiabatic path, between a high temperature product state and a low temperature thermofield double state. By smoothly varying the coupling strength in between these two limits, one efficiently cools each SYK model. We support these predictions—and demonstrate fast cooling to the low-temperature gravitational regime—via exact numerical solutions to the large-N equations of motion that govern the ground state and dynamical properties of the coupled system. We also present a theoretical framework that gives matching predictions to our numerical results using only standard assumptions about thermalization in closed quantum systems, suggesting that our approach may be useful for cooling strongly-interacting quantum Hamiltonians more broadly.