Finite-temperature Bath Research Articles

Quantum thermometry based on interferometric power

In the field of quantum thermometry, usually temperature is estimated by the framework of quantum metrology. In this work, an alternative approach to quantum thermometry is suggested, based on interferometric power (IP). IP is defined as the worst-case quantum Fisher information in a double-channel interferometer. Specifically, the time evolution of the IP for a two-qubit state as a probe contacting with a finite-temperature bath is considered. The IP dynamics of the probe with three kinds of initial states (i.e., entangled, separable, and mixed) strongly depend on the bath temperature. The dynamical evolution of IP would be measured experimentally, considering that the IP is a measurable quantity in the experiment. Thus, the IP dynamics can be adopted to extract the value of the bath temperature directly. In this sense, the IP could be exploited as a quantum thermometer.

Theory dependence of black hole interior reconstruction and the extended strong subadditivity

An AdS eternal black hole in equilibrium with a finite temperature bath presents a Hawking-like information paradox due to a continuous exchange of radiation with the bath. The non-perturbative gravitational effect, the replica wormhole, cures this paradox by introducing a non-trivial entanglement wedge for the bath after Page time. In this paper, we analyse the theory dependence of this non-perturbative effect by randomising the boundary conditions of some of the bulk matter fields. We explicitly analyse this in JT gravity by introducing a matter CFT in the AdS region with random boundary conditions at the AdS boundary that are drawn from a distribution. Using the island formula and the extended strong subadditivity due to Carlen and Lieb, we show that at late times the black hole interior is contained inside the entanglement wedge of a reference Hilbert space that encodes the information about the random boundary conditions. Consequently, the reconstruction of the black hole interior from the radiation, in particular the region near the singularity, requires a detailed knowledge of the theory.

Comparing metrics for mixed quantum states: Sjöqvist and Bures

It is known that there are infinitely many distinguishability metrics for mixed quantum states. This freedom, in turn, leads to metric-dependent interpretations of physically meaningful geometric quantities such as complexity and volume of quantum states. In this paper, we first present an explicit and unabridged mathematical discussion on the relation between the Sjoqvist metric and the Bures metric for arbitrary nondegenerate mixed quantum states, using the notion of decompositions of density operators by means of ensembles of pure quantum states. Then, to enhance our comprehension of the difference between these two metrics from a physics standpoint, we compare the formal expressions of these two metrics for arbitrary thermal quantum states specifying quantum systems in equilibrium with a reservoir at non-zero temperature. For illustrative purposes, we show the difference between these two metrics in the case of a simple physical system characterized by a spin-qubit in an arbitrarily oriented uniform and stationary external magnetic field in thermal equilibrium with a finite-temperature bath. Finally, we compare the Bures and Sjoqvist metrics in terms of their monotonicity property.

Classical discrete time crystals

The spontaneous breaking of time-translation symmetry in periodically driven quantum systems leads to a new phase of matter: discrete time crystals (DTC). This phase exhibits collective subharmonic oscillations that depend upon an interplay of non-equilibrium driving, many-body interactions, and the breakdown of ergodicity. However, subharmonic responses are also a well-known feature of classical dynamical systems ranging from predator-prey models to Faraday waves and AC-driven charge density waves. This raises the question of whether these classical phenomena display the same rigidity characteristic of a quantum DTC. In this work, we explore this question in the context of periodically driven Hamiltonian dynamics coupled to a finite-temperature bath, which provides both friction and, crucially, noise. Focusing on one-dimensional chains, where in equilibrium any transition would be forbidden at finite temperature, we provide evidence that the combination of noise and interactions drives a sharp, first-order dynamical phase transition between a discrete time-translation invariant phase and an activated classical discrete time crystal (CDTC) in which time-translation symmetry is broken out to exponentially-long time scales. Power-law correlations are present along a first-order line which terminates at a critical point. We analyze the transition by mapping it to the locked-to-sliding transition of a DC-driven charge density wave. Our work points to a classical limit for quantum time crystals, and raises several intriguing questions concerning the non-equilibrium universality class of the CDTC critical point.

Dissipative preparation of Bell states with parallel quantum Zeno dynamics

We propose a new mechanism, parallel quantum Zeno dynamics, to dissipatively prepare all Bell entangled states of the two-qubit system in the context of cavity quantum electrodynamics. This mechanism can provide two transition channels between ground states and two different dark states simultaneously, which efficiently speeds up the stabilization of the entanglement and suppresses the adverse influence of surrounding environments. In addition, there is no need for the initialization of quantum states and the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality can be violated in a finite temperature bath. The experimental feasibility is also studied by the state-of-the-art technique and a high fidelity about $99%$ can be achieved.

Dissipative Landau-Zener problem and thermally assisted Quantum Annealing

We revisit the issue of thermally assisted quantum annealing by a detailed study of the dissipative Landau-Zener problem in presence of a Caldeira-Leggett bath of harmonic oscillators, using both a weak-coupling quantum master equation and a quasi-adiabatic path-integral approach. Building on the known zero-temperature exact results (Wubs et al., PRL 97, 200404 (2006)), we show that a finite temperature bath can have a beneficial effect on the ground-state probability only if it couples also to a spin-direction that is transverse with respect to the driving field, while no improvement is obtained for the more commonly studied purely longitudinal coupling. In particular, we also highlight that, for a transverse coupling, raising the bath temperature further improves the ground-state probability in the fast-driving regime. We discuss the relevance of these findings for the current quantum-annealing flux qubit chips.

Quantum kicked harmonic oscillator in contact with a heat bath

We consider the quantum harmonic oscillator in contact with a finite temperature bath, modelled by the Caldeira-Leggett master equation. Applying periodic kicks to the oscillator, we study the system in different dynamical regimes between classical integrability and chaos on the one hand, and ballistic or diffusive energy absorption on the other. We then investigate the influence of the heat bath on the oscillator in each case. Phase space techniques allow us to simulate the evolution of the system efficiently. In this way, we calculate high resolution Wigner functions at long times, where the system approaches a quasi-stationary cyclic evolution. Thereby, we are able to perform an accurate study of the thermodynamic properties of a non-integrable, quantum chaotic system in contact with a heat bath.

Approximation to the quantum planar rotor coupled to a finite temperature bath

An approximation to the description of the dynamics of a quantum planar rotor coupled to a finite temperature bath is derived by considering a microscopic model of interaction based on an angular momentum exchange with two different environments coupled independently to the positive and negative angular momentum spectrum. A non-Lindblad master equation is derived for this microscopic model by using the Born–Markov approximation in the weak coupling limit. We show that under this approximation the rotor dynamics presents the correct damping behavior of the motion and the thermal state reached by the rotor is in the form of Boltzmann distribution. The case of the quantum rotor in an external uniform field and the quantum kicked rotor are briefly discussed as exemplification.

Effective field theory out of equilibrium: Brownian quantum fields

The emergence of an effective field theory out of equilibrium is studied in the case in which a light field—the system—interacts with very heavy fields in a finite temperature bath. We obtain the reduced density matrix for the light field, its time evolution is determined by an effective action that includes the influence action from correlations of the heavy degrees of freedom. The non-equilibrium effective field theory yields a Langevin equation of motion for the light field in terms of dissipative and noise kernels that obey a generalized fluctuation dissipation relation. These are completely determined by the spectral density of the bath which is analyzed in detail for several cases. At T = 0 we elucidate the effect of thresholds in the renormalization aspects and the asymptotic emergence of a local effective field theory with unitary time evolution. At new ‘anomalous’ thresholds arise, in particular the decay of the environmental heavy fields into the light field leads to dissipative dynamics of the light field. Even when the heavy bath particles are thermally suppressed this dissipative contribution leads to the thermalization of the light field which is confirmed by a quantum kinetics analysis. We obtain the quantum master equation and show explicitly that its solution in the field basis is precisely the influence action that determines the effective non-equilibrium field theory. The Lindblad form of the quantum master equation features time dependent dissipative coefficients. Their time dependence is crucial to extract renormalization effects at asymptotically long time. The dynamics from the quantum master equation is in complete agreement with that of the effective action, Langevin dynamics and quantum kinetics, thus providing a unified framework to effective field theory out of equilibrium.

P-Wave superconductors in D-brane systems

In this work we take the intersecting D-brane models to explore some properties of p-wave superconductor at strong coupling. Our studies are focused on four-dimensional spacetime, which is not completely researched as in planar case. Optimistically, the AdS/CFT approach to superconductor, or more precisely superconducting-like phase transition, can give us some intuitions about mysterious high Tc superconductors. Concretely, we use defect D4/D6 and D4/D4 (noncritical) models to carry out comparative investigations. To make the system in the finite temperature bath, we assume that the superconducting phase is in the deconfined and chiral symmetry restoring phase for black D4-brane geometry. For the background fields, we use both analytical and numerical methods to solve the coupled nonlinear equations of motion. Near the phase transition, both methods give the mean filed behavior for the superconducting condensate. We then study gauge field perturbations of the systems to probe the AC conductivity. Similar to previous results, there comes out a gap in low frequency regime and the conductivity gets exponentially small as the condensation is enhanced. In contrast to previous investigations, we also compute the AC conductivity along the x direction, which needs to study a coupled sets of fluctuation modes. This shows us the anisotropic feature of p-wave superconductors.

Momentum fluctuations of heavy quarks in the gauge-string duality

Using the gauge-string duality, I compute two-point functions of the force acting on an external quark moving through a finite temperature bath of N = 4 super-Yang–Mills theory. I comment on the possible relevance of the string theory calculations to heavy quarks propagating through a quark–gluon plasma.

Motional quantum error correction

We examine the dynamics of a qubit stored in the motional degrees of freedom of an ultra-cold ion in an ion trap which is subject to the decoherence effects of a finite-temperature bath. We discover an encoding of the qubit, in two of the motional modes of the ion, which is stable against the occurrence of either none or one quantum jump. For the case of a zero-temperature bath we describe how to transfer only the information concerning the occurrence of quantum jumps and their types to a measuring apparatus, without affecting the ion's motional state significantly. We then describe how to generate a unitary restoration of the qubit given the jump information, through Raman processes generated by a series of laser pulses.

Motional quantum error correction

We examine the dynamics of a qubit stored in the motional degrees of freedom of an ultra-cold ion in an ion trap which is subject to the decoherence effects of a finite-temperature bath. We discover an encoding of the qubit, in two of the motional modes of the ion, which is stable against the occurrence of either none or one quantum jump. For the case of a zero-temperature bath we describe how to transfer only the information concerning the occurrence of quantum jumps and their types to a measuring apparatus, without affecting the ion's motional state significantly. We then describe how to generate a unity restoration of the qubit given the jump information, through Raman processes generated by a series of laser pulses.