Bath Operators Research Articles

Phase diffusion and fluctuations in a dissipative Bose-Josephson junction.

We analyze the phase diffusion, quantum fluctuations and their spectral features of a one-dimensional Bose-Josephson junction (BJJ) nonlinearly coupled to a bosonic heat bath. The phase diffusion is considered by taking into account of random modulations of the BJJ modes causing a phase loss of initial coherence between the ground and excited states, whereby the frequency modulation is incorporated in the system-reservoir Hamiltonian by an interaction term linear in bath operators but nonlinear in system (BJJ) operators. We examine the dependence of the phase diffusion coefficient on the on-site interaction and temperature in the zero- and π-phase modes and demonstrate its phase transition-like behavior between the Josephson oscillation and the macroscopic quantum self-trapping (MQST) regimes in the π-phase mode. Based on the thermal canonical Wigner distribution, which is the equilibrium solution of the associated quantum Langevin equationfor phase, coherence factor is calculated to study phase diffusion for the zero- and π-phase modes. We investigate the quantum fluctuations of the relative phase and population imbalance in terms of fluctuation spectra which capture an interesting shift in Josephson frequency induced by frequency fluctuation due to nonlinear system-reservoir coupling, as well as the on-site interaction-induced splitting in the weak dissipative regime.

Quantum thermal transport beyond second order with the reaction coordinate mapping.

Standard quantum master equation techniques, such as the Redfield or Lindblad equations, are perturbative to second order in the microscopic system-reservoir coupling parameter λ. As a result, the characteristics of dissipative systems, which are beyond second order in λ, are not captured by such tools. Moreover, if the leading order in the studied effect is higher-than-quadratic in λ, a second-order description fundamentally fails even at weak coupling. Here, using the reaction coordinate (RC) quantum master equation framework, we are able to investigate and classify higher-than-second-order transport mechanisms. This technique, which relies on the redefinition of the system-environment boundary, allows for the effects of system-bath coupling to be included to high orders. We study steady-state heat current beyond second-order in two models: The generalized spin-boson model with non-commuting system-bath operators and a three-level ladder system. In the latter model, heat enters in one transition and is extracted from a different one. Crucially, we identify two transport pathways: (i) System's current, where heat conduction is mediated by transitions in the system, with the heat current scaling as jq ∝ λ2 to the lowest order in λ. (ii) Inter-bath current, with the thermal baths directly exchanging energy between them, facilitated by the bridging quantum system. To the lowest order in λ, this current scales as jq ∝ λ4. These mechanisms are uncovered and examined using numerical and analytical tools. We contend that the RC mapping brings, already at the level of the mapped Hamiltonian, much insight into transport characteristics.

Dynamical properties of a driven dissipative dimerized S=12 chain

We consider the dynamical properties of a gapped quantum spin system coupled to the electric field of a laser, which drives the resonant excitation of specific phonon modes that modulate the magnetic interactions. We deduce the quantum master equations governing the time-evolution of both the lattice and spin sectors, by developing a Lindblad formalism with bath operators providing an explicit description of their respective phonon-mediated damping terms. We investigate the nonequilibrium steady states (NESS) of the spin system established by a continuous driving, delineating parameter regimes in driving frequency, damping, and spin-phonon coupling for the establishment of physically meaningful NESS and their related nontrivial properties. Focusing on the regime of generic weak spin-phonon coupling, we characterize the NESS by their frequency and wave-vector content, explore their transient and relaxation behavior, and discuss the energy flow, the system temperature, and the critical role of the type of bath adopted. Our study lays a foundation for the quantitative modeling of experiments currently being designed to control coherent many-body spin states in quantum magnetic materials.

Accessing the bath information in open quantum systems with the stochastic c -number Langevin equation method

In traditional open quantum systems, the baths are usually traced out so that only the system information is left in the equations of motion. However, recent studies reveal that using only the system degrees of freedom can be insufficient. In this work, we develop a stochastic c-number Langevin equation method which can conveniently access the bath information. In our method, the studied quantities are the expectation values of operators which can contain both system operators and bath operators. The dynamics of the operators of interest is formally divided into separate system and bath parts, with auxiliary stochastic fields. After solving the independent stochastic dynamics of the system part and the bath part, we can recombine them by taking the average over these stochastic fields to obtain the desired quantities. Several applications of the theory are highlighted, including the pure dephasing model, the spin-boson model, and an optically excited quantum dot coupled to a bath of phonons.

Satisfying fermionic statistics in the modeling of non-Markovian dynamics with one-electron reduced density matrices.

Treatment of Markovian, many-electron dynamics from the solution of the Lindblad equation for the 1-electron reduced density matrix requires additional constraints on the bath operators to maintain fermion statistics. Recently, we generalized Lindblad's formalism to non-Markovian dynamics through an ensemble of Lindbladian trajectories. Here we show that the fermion statistics of non-Markovian dynamics can be enforced through analogous constraints on the bath operators of each Lindbladian trajectory in the ensemble. To illustrate, we apply the non-Markovian method to three distinct systems of two fermions in three levels. While the electrons violate the fermion statistics without the constraints, correct fermion behavior is recovered with the constraints.

Quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in open quantum systems

Traditional approach on quantum Zeno effect (QZE) and quantum anti-Zeno effect (QAZE) in open quantum systems (implicitly) assumes the bath (environment) state returning to its original state after each instantaneous projective measurement on the system and thus ignores the cross-correlations of the bath operators between different Zeno intervals. However, this assumption is not generally true, especially for a bath with a considerably non-negligible memory effect and for a system repeatedly projected into an initial general superposition state. We find that in stark contrast to the result of a constant value found in the traditional approach, the scaled average decay rate in unit Zeno interval of the survival probability is generally time-dependent or has an oscillatory behavior. In the case of strong bath correlation, the transition between the QZE and QAZE depends sensitively on the number of measurements $N$. For a fixed $N$, a QZE region predicted by the tradition approach may be in fact already in the QAZE region. We illustrate our findings using an exactly solvable open qubit system model with a Lorentzian bath spectral density, which is directly related to realistic circuit cavity quantum electrodynamics systems. Thus the results and dynamics presented here can be verified by current superconducting circuit technology.

Transitionless quantum driving in open quantum systems

We extend the concept of superadiabatic dynamics, or transitionless quantum driving, to quantum open systems whose evolution is governed by a master equation in the Lindblad form. We provide the general framework needed to determine the control strategy required to achieve superadiabaticity. We apply our formalism to two examples consisting of a two-level system coupled to environments with time-dependent bath operators.

Dissipative dynamics of a spin system with three-body interaction

In this paper, we explicitly solve the Lindblad equation for a system of three spins with a three-body interaction, coupled to the environment by bath operators that inject or absorb spin carriers. We exemplify the properties of this solution in the context of a simple instance of Feynman's quantum computer in which a two-qubit program line is executed, applying the primitive to a one-qubit register.

Third quantization: a general method to solve master equations for quadratic open Fermi systems

The Lindblad master equation for an arbitrary quadratic system of n fermions is solved explicitly in terms of diagonalization of a 4n×4n matrix, provided that all Lindblad bath operators are linear in the fermionic variables. The method is applied to the explicit construction of non-equilibrium steady states (NESS) and the calculation of asymptotic relaxation rates in the far from equilibrium problem of heat and spin transport in a nearest neighbour Heisenberg XY spin-1/2 chain in a transverse magnetic field.

Optimization of short coherent control pulses

Experimentally, however, this idealized situation is not realistic. The real pulses are always of finite amplitude and of finite length. So the question must be addressed which effect a finite pulse duration p has. We want to elucidate this issue in the present work theoretically in a fully quantum mechanical framework. The issue of pulses of finite duration and finite amplitude has been considered in other papers. Viola and Knill generalized their previous approach of averaging over a symmetry group 16 by instantaneous changes of the effective Hamiltonian to continuous changes requiring only finite, bounded control amplitudes 17. But the presence of the coupling to the bath during the pulses has not been considered. Khodjasteh and Lidar considered the effect of finite pulse duration in a comprehensive comparison of various schemes for pulse sequences 18. They did not consider to make the detrimental effects of the finite pulse duration vanish on the level of the individual pulse, but they discussed possible cancellations on the higher hierarchical level of the pulse sequence. In the present work, we will choose another route and aim at reducing the decoherence due to finite pulse duration already on the level of the single pulse. As a side remark, we note that the statement in Ref. 18 on optimized pulse sequences 8 that they hold only for bosonic bath operators is very likely not to be correct. It has been conjectured very recently by Lee et al. 19 that the optimized sequences apply to the most general phase decoherence model.

Time evolution and decoherence of a spin-12particle coupled to a spin bath in thermal equilibrium

The time evolution of a spin-1/2 particle under the influence of a locally applied external magnetic field, and interacting with anisotropic spin environment in thermal equilibrium at temperature $T$ is studied. The exact analytical form of the reduced density matrix of the central spin is calculated explicitly for finite number of bath spins. The case of an infinite number of environmental spins is investigated using the convergence of the rescaled bath operators to normal Gaussian random variables. In this limit, we derive the analytical form of the components of the Bloch vector for antiferromagnetic interactions within the bath, and we investigate the short-time and long-time behavior of reduced dynamics. The effect of the external magnetic field, the anisotropy and the temperature of the bath on the decoherence of the central spin is discussed.

Transient QED effects in absorbing dielectrics

The spontaneous-emission rate of a radiating atom reaches its time-independent equilibrium value after an initial transient regime. In this paper, we consider the associated relaxation effects of the spontaneous-decay rate of atoms in dispersive and absorbing dielectric media for atomic-transition frequencies near material resonances. A quantum mechanical description of such media is furnished by a damped-polariton model in which absorption is taken into account through coupling to a bath. We show how all field and matter operators in this theory can be expressed in terms of the bath operators at an initial time. The consistency of these solutions for the field and matter operators are found to depend on the validity of certain velocity sum rules. The transient effects in the spontaneous-decay rate are studied with the help of several specific models for the dielectric constant, which are shown to follow from the general theory by adopting particular forms of the bath coupling constant.

Flow equations for the spin-boson problem

Using continuous unitary transformations recently introduced by Wegner [1], we obtain flow equations for the parameters of the spin-boson Hamiltonian. Interactions not contained in the original Hamiltonian are generated by this unitary transformation. Within an approximation that neglects additional interactions quadratic in the bath operators, we can close the flow equations. Applying this formalism to the case of Ohmic dissipation at zero temperature, we calculate the renormalized tunneling frequency. We find a transition from an untrapped to trapped state at the critical coupling constant αc=1. We also obtain the static susceptibility via the equilibrium spin correlation function. Our results are both consistent with results known from the Kondo problem and those obtained from mode-coupling theories. Using this formalism at finite temperature, we find a transition from coherent to incoherent tunneling atT2*≈2T1*, whereT1* is the crossover temperature of the dynamics known from the NIBA.

Using relaxation theory to compute the electronic absorption spectrum of a chromophore coupled to a condensed phase environment

A time-dependent method for computing the electronic absorption spectrum of a chromophore in a condensed phase environment is presented. The cumulant expansion-based relaxation theory of Nitzan and Silbey [J. Chem. Phys. 60, 4070 (1974)] is adapted to enable approximate calculation of the absorption spectrum of a general system coupled to an arbitrary bath. The system–bath interaction potential operator is expanded to second order in a time-dependent perturbation series and then exponentiated in an attempt to capture the long-time dynamics. The dynamics of the bath is contained in Heisenberg correlation functions of the bath operators which are related to their classical counterparts. The formalism is applied to a harmonic and an anharmonic (Morse) system oscillator coupled to a harmonic bath. The exactly solvable harmonic model, a two-dimensional model of a Morse oscillator coupled to a single bath oscillator and a comparison to the time-dependent Hartree approximation are used to illustrate the accuracy of the formalism.

On the structure of the generalized master equation for open systems

A quantum open system S, interacting with a reservoir R is considered. The kernel of the generalized master equations (G.M.E.'s), usually deduced to describe the dynamics of S, is expressed in terms of time correlation functions of the bath operators involved in the interaction between S and R, calculated on a suitable equilibrium state of R. Such equilibrium state “enters” into the kernel in a rather artificial way, e.g. via the projection operator used to deduce the G.M.E. In this paper the structure of the kernel of the G.M.E. for open systems is justified from first principles, showing that the presence of the equilibrium state of R in the kernel arises in quite a natural way. The thermodynamic limit of R plays an essential role in connection with this result.

Theory of the Influence of Environment on the Angular Distribution of Nuclear Radiation

The effect of electronic relaxation processes on the angular correlation and on the angular distribution of radiation from oriented nuclei is investigated. The influence of the environment on the radioactive nuclei is taken into account by reducing the density operator for the total system (nucleus and surroundings mutually interacting) to a density operator for the nucleus alone. Elimination of the unobserved bath variables is performed with the help of Zwanzig's projection-operator technique. The Liouville formalism is used throughout. The (initially unspecified) properties of the environment enter the theory via second-order correlation functions, which are defined in terms of equilibrium ensemble averages of certain bath operators, like, e.g., the hyperfine-field operator. The matrix elements of the nuclear-evolution operator (which is a superoperator in Liouville space) with respect to a complete orthonormal set of multipole operators are just the usual perturbation factors ${{G}_{k{k}^{\ensuremath{'}}}}^{q{q}^{\ensuremath{'}}}$ of perturbed-angular-correlations theory. The consequent use of the multipole representation yields immediately the final formulas needed in the expression for both the angular distribution of radiation from oriented nuclei and the angular correlation function. The general theory includes relaxation processes due to magnetic and quadrupole interactions. The important case of purely magnetic interactions is discussed in more detail. Specialization to relaxation caused by randomly fluctuating fields yields a formula which contains both the Abragam-Pound result for time-fluctuating quadrupole interaction and Micha's extension to randomly time-varying magnetic fields in multidomain ferromagnets. Exact high-temperature solutions are presented for single crystals in a static magnetic field and with magnetic-type relaxation processes (axially symmetric case). For nuclei with spin $I=1$, the extension to arbitrary temperatures has been considered. The application of the present theory to the problem of multipole relaxation (which arises, e.g., in spin-lattice relaxation measurements with NMR/ON technique) is discussed.