Fast convergence of propagation algorithms for open quantum systems

We establish general conditions for the rapid convergence of propagation algorithms for computing expectation values of local observables in quantum many-body systems, covering both spin and fermionic systems. Our results apply to evolutions that are sufficiently contractive, providing a general mechanism by which contractivity controls the growth generated by local interactions and enables efficient classical simulation. As a first application, we consider noisy time evolution generated by local Hamiltonians on arbitrary interaction graphs. We show that the dynamics can be efficiently simulated when the noise strength λ is sufficiently large compared to the degree of the interaction graph. More generally, for systems with an interaction strength u, our bounds determine a time horizon t max as a function of the interaction strength u, the noise strength λ, and the interaction structure below which the algorithm is efficient. In the noiseless limit, λ=0, our analysis extends the efficiently simulable time scale from (1/u) proved in Facelli, Fawzi, and Fawzi (2026) to t max about 1/u matching the recent improvement by Zhao, Marvian and Tong (2026). As a second application, we apply the same framework to the computation of local observables in Gibbs states of local Hamiltonians. We consider a pseudo-Lindbladian whose steady state is the Gibbs state and show that, at sufficiently high temperature, its propagation algorithm converges rapidly. In particular, for weakly-interacting systems with interaction strength u, our result applies up to inverse temperatures β about (1/u).