Pre-Cooling Strategy Allows Exponentially Faster Heating

What is the fastest way to heat a system which is coupled to a temperature controlled oven? The intuitive answer is to use only the hottest temperature available. However, we show that often it is possible to achieve an exponentially faster heating, and propose a strategy to find the optimal protocol. Surprisingly, this protocol can have a pre-cooling stage – cooling the system before heating it shortens the heating time significantly. This approach can be applied to many-body systems, as we demonstrate in the 2D antiferromagnet Ising model.