Bosonic Heat Bath Research Articles

Self-oscillating open quantum systems

Evolution of occupation number is studied for a bosonic oscillator (with one and two degrees of freedom) linearly fully coupled to fermionic and bosonic heat baths. The lack of equilibrium in this oscillator is discussed in the light of the creation of an energy source. The connection of such a system with known nonlinear self-oscillating systems is shown.

Induced magnetization in anisotropic environment

The non-Markovian dynamics of a two-dimensional charged harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a neutral bosonic heat bath is investigated in a linear-polarized electric field. The analytical expressions for the time-dependent and asymptotic magnetic moment are derived for the Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics. It is predicted that the liner-polarized electric field generates strong orbital currents and magnetization in a symmetric harmonic oscillator embedded into anisotropic heat bath. The role of the mixed dissipative kernel in magnetization is analyzed.

Diagnosing Thermalization Dynamics of Non-Hermitian Quantum Systems via GKSL Master Equations

Abstract The application of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis to non-Hermitian quantum systems has become one of the most important topics in dissipative quantum chaos, recently giving rise to intense debates. The process of thermalization is intricate, involving many time-evolution trajectories in the reduced Hilbert space of the system. By considering two different expansion forms of the density matrices adopted in the biorthogonal and right-state time evolutions, we derive two versions of the Gorini–Kossakowski–Sudarshan–Lindblad (GKSL) master equations describing the non-Hermitian systems coupled to a bosonic heat bath in thermal equilibrium. By solving the equations, we identify a sufficient condition for thermalization under both time evolutions, resulting in Boltzmann biorthogonal and right-eigenstate statistics, respectively. This finding implies that the recently proposed biorthogonal random matrix theory needs an appropriate revision. Moreover, we exemplify the precise dynamics of thermalization and thermodynamic properties with test models.

Two-dimensional open quantum system in dissipative bosonic heat bath, external magnetic field, and two time-dependent electric fields.

Non-Markovian dynamics of a charged particle in a two-dimensional harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a neutral bosonic heat bath is investigated in an external uniform magnetic field and two perpendicular time-dependent electric fields. The analytical expressions for the time-dependent and asymptotic angular momentum are derived for the Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics. The dependence of the angular momentum on the frequency of the electric field, cyclotron frequency, collective frequency, and anisotropy of the heat bath is studied. The angular momentum (or magnetization) of a charged particle can be ruled by varying the frequency of the electric field.

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.

Orbital diamagnetism of two-dimensional quantum systems in a dissipative environment: Non-Markovian effect and application to graphene.

The non-Markovian dynamics of a charged particle confined in the harmonic oscillator and linearly coupled to a neutral bosonic heat bath is investigated in the external uniform magnetic field. The analytical expressions are derived for the time-dependent and asymptotic orbital angular momenta. The transition from non-Markovian dynamics to Markovian dynamics and the transition from a confined charge particle to a free charge particle are considered. The orbital diamagnetism of graphene in a dissipative environment and an external uniform magnetic field is studied and compared with existing experimental data. The results are presented for the electric conductivity and resonance behavior of the mass magnetization in graphene.

Applicability of the absence of equilibrium in quantum system fully coupled to several fermionic and bosonic heat baths.

The time evolution of an occupation number is studied for a fermionic or bosonic oscillator linearly fully coupled to several fermionic and bosonic heat baths. The influence of the characteristics of thermal reservoirs of different statistics on the nonstationary population probability is analyzed at large times. Applications of the absence of equilibrium in such systems for creating a dynamic (nonstationary) memory storage are discussed.

Asymptotic equilibrium in quantum system fully coupled simultaneously to mixed fermionic–bosonic heat baths

The full coupling of a quantum system to a heat bath usually induces its evolution towards an asymptotic equilibrium imposed by the complexity of the heat bath. We show here that such equilibrium might never be reached when the system is coupled simultaneously to bosonic and fermionic heat baths unless different thermal reservoirs are related with each others. Conditions under which an asymptotic equilibrium can be reached are discussed.

Angular momentum of open quantum systems in external magnetic field

The non-Markovian dynamics of a charged harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a neutral bosonic heat bath is investigated in external uniform magnetic field. The analytical expression is derived for the asymptotic angular momentum. The orbital diamagnetism of quantum system in a dissipative environment is studied.

Open quantum system in external magnetic field within non-Markovian quantum Langevin approach

The non-Markovian dynamics of a charged particle linearly coupled to a neutral bosonic heat bath is investigated in an external uniform magnetic field. The analytical expressions for the time-dependent and asymptotic friction and diffusion coefficients, cyclotron frequencies, variances of the coordinate and momentum, and orbital magnetic moments are derived. The role of magnetic field in the dissipation and diffusion processes is illustrated by several examples in the low- and high-temperature regimes. The localization phenomenon for a charged particle is observed. The orbital diamagnetism of quantum system in a dissipative environment is studied. The quantization conditions are found for the angular momentum.

Dynamical decoupling of unbounded Hamiltonians

We investigate the possibility to suppress interactions between a finite dimensional system and an infinite dimensional environment through a fast sequence of unitary kicks on the finite dimensional system. This method, called dynamical decoupling, is known to work for bounded interactions, but physical environments such as bosonic heat baths are usually modeled with unbounded interactions; hence, here, we initiate a systematic study of dynamical decoupling for unbounded operators. We develop a sufficient decoupling criterion for arbitrary Hamiltonians and a necessary decoupling criterion for semibounded Hamiltonians. We give examples for unbounded Hamiltonians where decoupling works and the limiting evolution as well as the convergence speed can be explicitly computed. We show that decoupling does not always work for unbounded interactions and we provide both physically and mathematically motivated examples.

Doublon lifetimes in dissipative environments

We study the dissipative decay of states with a doubly occupied site in a two-electron Hubbard model, known as doublons. For the environment, we consider charge and current noise, which are modeled as a bosonic heat bath that couples to the on-site energies and the tunnel couplings, respectively. It turns out that the dissipative decay depends qualitatively on the type of environment, as for charge noise, the lifetime grows with the electron-electron interaction. For current noise, by contrast, doublons become increasingly unstable with larger interaction. Numerical studies within a Bloch-Redfield approach are complemented by analytical estimates for the decay rates. For typical quantum dot parameters, we predict doublon lifetimes up to 50 ns.

Quantum dissipative dynamics of a bistable system in the sub-Ohmic to super-Ohmic regime

We investigate the quantum dynamics of a multilevel bistable system coupled to a bosonic heat bath beyond the perturbative regime. We consider different spectral densities of the bath, in the transition from sub-Ohmic to super-Ohmic dissipation, and different cutoff frequencies. The study is carried out by using the real-time path integral approach of the Feynman–Vernon influence functional. We find that, in the crossover dynamical regime characterized by damped intrawell oscillations and incoherent tunneling, the short time behavior and the time scales of the relaxation starting from a nonequilibrium initial condition depend nontrivially on the spectral properties of the heat bath.

Irreversible adiabatic decoherence of dipole-interacting nuclear-spin pairs coupled with a phonon bath

We report a first-principle theoretical study of the adiabatic decoherence undergone by a nuclear spin system in a solid, coupled to the phonon field through the dipolar interaction. The calculations are performed for a chain of weakly interacting 1/2-spin pairs, considered as an open quantum system in contact with a bosonic heat bath. By incorporating to the whole system Hamiltonian the fluctuations of the local dipolar energy produced by low frequency phonons, and assuming that this low energy fluctuations are adiabatic, we find that the spin dynamics can be described in closed form through a spin-boson model. The obtained results show that the coupling with the phonons destroy the spin coherence, and the efficiency of the process significantly depends on the complexity of the involved spin states. By using realistic values for the various parameters of the model, we conclude that this mechanism can be particularly efficient to degrade multi-spin coherences, when the number of `active' spins involved in a given coherence is high. In this way, we show that the spin coherence in the adiabatic regime can be noticeably affected by this mechanism.

Work and heat for two-level systems in dissipative environments: Strong driving and non-Markovian dynamics

Work, moments of work, and heat flux are studied for the generic case of a strongly driven two-level system immersed in a bosonic heat bath in domains of parameter space where perturbative treatments fail. This includes in particular the interplay between non-Markovian dynamics and moderate to strong external driving. Exact data are compared with predictions from weak-coupling approaches. Further, the role of system-bath correlations in the initial thermal state and their impact on the heat flux are addressed. The relevance of these results for current experimental activities on solid-state devices is discussed.

Description of non-Markovian effect in open quantum system with the discretized environment method

An approach, called discretized environment method, is introduced to treat exactly non-Markovian effects in open quantum systems. In this approach, a complex environment described by a spectral function is mapped into a finite set of discretized states with an appropriate coupling to the system of interest. The finite set of system plus environment degrees of freedom are then explicitly followed in time leading to a quasi-exact description. The present approach is anticipated to be particularly accurate in the low temperature and strongly non-Markovian regime. The discretized environment method is validated on a two-level system (qubit) coupled to a bosonic or fermionic heat bath. A perfect agreement with the quantum Langevin approach is found. Further illustrations are made on a three-level system (qutrit) coupled to a bosonic heat-bath. Emerging processes due to strong memory effects are discussed.

Optimal performance of endoreversible quantum refrigerators

The derivation of general performance benchmarks is important in the design of highly optimized heat engines and refrigerators. To obtain them, one may model phenomenologically the leading sources of irreversibility ending up with results that are model independent, but limited in scope. Alternatively, one can take a simple physical system realizing a thermodynamic cycle and assess its optimal operation from a complete microscopic description. We follow this approach in order to derive the coefficient of performance at maximum cooling rate for any endoreversible quantum refrigerator. At striking variance with the universality of the optimal efficiency of heat engines, we find that the cooling performance at maximum power is crucially determined by the details of the specific system-bath interaction mechanism. A closed analytical benchmark is found for endoreversible refrigerators weakly coupled to unstructured bosonic heat baths: an ubiquitous case study in quantum thermodynamics.

Energy and information propagation in a finite coupled bosonic heat bath

The finite coupled bosonic model of reservoir introduced by Vasile et al. [Phys. Rev. A 89 (2014) 022109] to characterize non-Markovianity, is used to study the different dissipative behaviors of a harmonic oscillator coupled to it when it is in resonance, close to resonance or far detuned. We show that information and energy exchange between system and heat bath go hand in hand because phonons are the carriers of both: in resonance free propagation of excitations is achieved, and therefore pure dissipation, while when far detuned the system can only correlate with the first oscillator in the bath's chain, leading to almost unitary evolution. In the intermediate situation, we show the penetration of correlations and the formation of oscillatory (dressed state) behavior, which lies at the root of non-Markovianity.

Long-term effect of inter-mode transitions in quantum Markovian process

We study the Markovian process of a multi-mode open system connecting with a non-equilibrium environment, which consists of several heat baths with different temperatures. As an illustration, we study the steady state of three linearly coupled harmonic oscillators in long time evolution, two of which contact with two independent bosonic heat baths with different temperatures respectively. We show that the inter-mode transitions mediated by the environment is responsible for the long time behaviour of the dynamics evolution, which is usually considered to take effect only in short time dynamics of the system immersed in a equilibrium heat bath with a single temperature. In non-equilibrium systems, the ignorance of the inter-mode transitions may give rise to some counter-intuitive result, thus they cannot be neglected.

Persistent dynamic entanglement from classical motion: how bio-molecular machines can generate nontrivial quantum states

Very recently (Cai et al 2010 Phys. Rev. E 82 021921), a simple mechanism was presented by which a molecule subjected to forced oscillations, out of thermal equilibrium, can maintain quantum entanglement between two of its quantum degrees of freedom. Crucially, entanglement can be maintained even in the presence of very intense noise, so intense that no entanglement is possible when the forced oscillations cease. This mechanism may allow for the presence of nontrivial quantum entanglement in biological systems. Here we significantly enlarge the study of this model. In particular, we show that the persistent generation of dynamic entanglement is not restricted to the bosonic heat bath model, but can also be observed in other decoherence models, e.g. the spin gas model, and in non-Markovian scenarios. We also show how conformational changes can be used by an elementary machine to generate entanglement even in unfavorable conditions. In biological systems, similar mechanisms could be exploited by more complex molecular machines or motors.