Algebraic Aspects of the Dynamics of Quantum Multilevel Systems in the Projection Operator Technique

Abstract

Using the projection operator method, we obtain approximate time-local and time-nonlocal master equations for the reduced statistical operator of a multilevel quantum system with a finite number N of quantum eigenstates coupled simultaneously to arbitrary classical fields and a dissipative environment. We show that the structure of the obtained equations is significantly simplified if the free Hamiltonian dynamics of the multilevel system under the action of external fields and also its Markovian and non-Markovian evolutions due to coupling to the environment are described via the representation of the multilevel system in terms of the SU(N) algebra, which allows realizing effective numerical algorithms for solving the obtained equations when studying real problems in various fields of theoretical and applied physics.