Liouvillian Gap Research Articles

Quantum dynamics of dissipative Chern insulator

For open quantum systems, a short-time evolution is usually well described by the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, while long-time dynamics requires the Lindblad master equation,in which the Liouvillian superoperators characterize the time evolution. In this paper, we constructed an open system by adding suitable gain and loss operators to the Chen insulator to investigate the time evolution of quantum states at long times by numerical simulations. Finally, we also propose a topolectrical circuits to realize the dissipative system for experimental observation. It is found that the opening and closing of the Liouvillian gap leads to different damping behaviours of the system and that the presence of non-Hermitian skin effects leads to a phenomenon of chiral damping with sharp wavefronts. Our study deepens the understanding of quantum dynamics of dissipative system.

Liouvillian gap and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a sunburst Kitaev ring: From local to uniform dissipation

Liouvillian gap and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a sunburst Kitaev ring: From local to uniform dissipation

Parametrically driving a quantum oscillator into exceptionality

The mathematical objects employed in physical theories do not always behave well. Einstein’s theory of space and time allows for spacetime singularities and Van Hove singularities arise in condensed matter physics, while intensity, phase and polarization singularities pervade wave physics. Within dissipative systems governed by matrices, singularities occur at the exceptional points in parameter space whereby some eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce simultaneously. However, the nature of exceptional points arising in quantum systems described within an open quantum systems approach has been much less studied. Here we consider a quantum oscillator driven parametrically and subject to loss. This squeezed system exhibits an exceptional point in the dynamical equations describing its first and second moments, which acts as a borderland between two phases with distinctive physical consequences. In particular, we discuss how the populations, correlations, squeezed quadratures and optical spectra crucially depend on being above or below the exceptional point. We also remark upon the presence of a dissipative phase transition at a critical point, which is associated with the closing of the Liouvillian gap. Our results invite the experimental probing of quantum resonators under two-photon driving, and perhaps a reappraisal of exceptional and critical points within dissipative quantum systems more generally.

Symmetrized Liouvillian Gap in Markovian Open Quantum Systems.

Markovian open quantum systems display complicated relaxation dynamics. The spectral gap of the Liouvillian characterizes the asymptotic decay rate toward the steady state, but it does not necessarily give a correct estimate of the relaxation time because the crossover time to the asymptotic regime may be too long. We here give a rigorous upper bound on the transient decay of autocorrelation functions in the steady state by introducing the symmetrized Liouvillian gap. The standard Liouvillian gap and the symmetrized one are identical in an equilibrium situation but differ from each other in the absence of the detailed balance condition. It is numerically shown that the symmetrized Liouvillian gap always gives a correct upper bound on the decay of the autocorrelation function, but the standard Liouvillian gap does not.

Exact solution for the Lindbladian dynamics for the open XX spin chain with boundary dissipation

We obtain exact formulas for the time-dependence of a few physical observables for the open XX spin chain with Lindbladian dynamics. Our analysis is based on the fact that the Lindblad equation for an arbitrary open quadratic system of NN fermions is explicitly solved in terms of diagonalization of a 4N\times4N4N×4N matrix called structure matrix by following the scheme of the third quantization. We mainly focus on the time-dependence of magnetization and spin current. As a short-time behavior at a given site, we observe the plateau regime except near the center of the chain. Basic features of this are explained by the light-cone structure created by propagations of boundary effects from the initial time, but we can explain their more detailed properties analytically using our exact formulas. On the other hand, after the plateau regime, the magnetization and spin current exhibit a slow decay to the steady state values described by the Liouvillian gap. We analytically establish its O(N^{-3})O(N−3) scaling and also determine its coefficient.

Relaxation of imbalance in a disordered XX model with on-site dephasing

The relaxation of observables to their non-equilibrium steady states in a disordered XX chain subjected to dephasing at every site has been intensely studied in recent years. We comprehensively analyze the relaxation of staggered magnetization, i.e., imbalance, in such a system, starting from the N\'eel initial state. We analytically predict emergence of several timescales in the system and extract results which match with large-system numerics without any extra fitting parameter until a universal timescale. An often reported stretched exponential decay is just one of the regimes which holds in a finite window of time and is therefore in fact not a true stretched exponential decay. Subsequently, the asymptotic decay of imbalance is governed by a power law irrespective of the disorder. We show that this emerges from the continuum limit of the low magnitude eigenspectrum of the Liouvillian. However, for finite systems, due to discreteness of the spectrum, the final phase of relaxation is governed by the relevant smallest Liouvillian gap.

Non-Hermitian Ising model at finite temperature

As a very simple model, the Ising model plays an important role in statistical physics. In the paper, with the help of quantum Liouvillian statistical theory, we study the one-dimensional non-Hermitian Ising model at finite temperature and give its analytical solutions. We find that the non-Hermitian Ising model shows quite different properties from those of its Hermitian counterpart. For example, the ‘pseudo-phase transition’ is explored between the ‘topological’ phase and the ‘non-topological’ phase, at which the Liouvillian energy gap is closed rather than the usual energy gap. In particular, we point out that the one-dimensional non-Hermitian Ising model at finite temperature can be equivalent to an effective anisotropic XY model in the transverse field. This work will help people understand quantum statistical properties of non-Hermitian systems at finite temperatures.

Critical optical-hysteresis regime and optical-bistability transformation

In this paper, we study the optical-hysteresis regime in a driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard dimer under a symmetric configuration and analyze the classical optical bistability with the Gross-Pitaevskii mean-field approach. We find that the critical point of the optical-hysteresis regime can be determined by the classical optical-bistability transformation predicted with a steady state equation, and the critical tunneling rate is given by analyzing the bistable threshold points. In addition, we apply the same approach to a single nonlinear microcavity coupled with an atom and the critical atom-cavity coupling strength of the optical-hysteresis regime is also obtained. Finally, in order to illustrate that the critical point could be determined by the classical optical-bistability transformation, we analyze the Liouvillian gap and find it opens at the critical point of the optical-hysteresis regime. This work clarifies the relation between optical hysteresis and classical optical bistability, which provides theoretical references for the modulation of optical hysteresis in experiment.

Liouvillian gap and single spin-flip dynamics in the dissipative Fermi-Hubbard model

Motivated by recent progress in cold-atom experiments, we analyze the SU($N$) Fermi-Hubbard model on a $d$-dimensional hypercubic lattice with two-body loss. By focusing on states near the ferromagnetic steady states, we obtain the Liouvillian gap in closed form for any $d$ and $N$. We also investigate the dynamics of a ferromagnetic initial state with a single spin flip both analytically and numerically. In particular, we show that, by decreasing the strength of the interaction and loss, the survival probability of the spin flip exhibits a crossover from the power-law decay to the exponential decay. We expect that our findings can be tested experimentally with ultracold alkaline-earth-like atoms in an optical lattice.

Demonstration of Error-Suppressed Quantum Annealing Via Boundary Cancellation

The boundary cancellation theorem for open systems extends the standard quantum adiabatic theorem: assuming the gap of the Liouvillian does not vanish, the distance between a state prepared by a boundary cancelling adiabatic protocol and the steady state of the system shrinks as a power of the number of vanishing time derivatives of the Hamiltonian at the end of the preparation. Here we generalize the boundary cancellation theorem so that it applies also to the case where the Liouvillian gap vanishes, and consider the effect of dynamical freezing of the evolution. We experimentally test the predictions of the boundary cancellation theorem using quantum annealing hardware, and find qualitative agreement with the predicted error suppression despite using annealing schedules that only approximate the required smooth schedules. Performance is further improved by using quantum annealing correction, and we demonstrate that the boundary cancellation protocol is significantly more robust to parameter variations than protocols which employ pausing to enhance the probability of finding the ground state.

Relaxation dynamics in the driven-dissipative Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model

For a chain with an open boundary described by the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, the combination of the algebraic damping and the non-Hermitian skin effect leads to an edge burst. It is interesting to ask whether these features remain when the system is described by a master equation with periodic drives. In this paper, taking the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model as an example, we explore the relaxation dynamics of the system with time periodically modulated intracell tunneling and single-particle dissipations. We find that for systems with periodic boundary conditions, the relaxation in the infinite-frequency driving limit can be algebraic or exponential depending on the intracell and intercell tunneling amplitudes. Finite-frequency driving can generally open the Liouvillian gap regardless of its strength and can turn the dynamics from algebraic damping to an exponential one. The Liouvillian gap increases with the increase of the driving period until a critical driving period is reached, and then it tends to a small, nonzero value for a sufficiently slow drive. For open boundary systems, we find that the dynamics of the localized excitation is still closely related to the Liouvillian gap before the excitation reaches the system boundary. The propagation speed of the localized excitation that controls the transition relaxation timescale can be slowed down by properly increasing the driving period and amplitude.

Experimental observation of a dissipative phase transition in a multi-mode many-body quantum system

Dissipative phase transitions are a characteristic feature of open systems. One of the paradigmatic examples for a first order dissipative phase transition is the driven nonlinear single-mode optical resonator. In this work, we study a realization with an ultracold bosonic quantum gas, which generalizes the single-mode system to many modes and stronger interactions. We measure the effective Liouvillian gap of the system and find evidence for a first order dissipative phase transition. Due to the multi-mode nature of the system, the microscopic dynamics is much richer and allows us to identify a non-equilibrium condensation process.

Exponential size scaling of the Liouvillian gap in boundary-dissipated systems with Anderson localization

We carry out a systematical study of the size scaling of Liouvillian gap in boundary-dissipated one-dimensional quasiperiodic and disorder systems. By treating the boundary-dissipation operators as a perturbation, we derive an analytical expression of the Liouvillian gap, which indicates clearly the Liouvillian gap being proportional to the minimum of boundary densities of eigenstates of the underlying Hamiltonian, and thus give a theoretical explanation why the Liouvillian gap has different size scaling relation in the extended and localized phase. While the Liouvillian gap displays a power-law size scaling $\Delta_{g}\propto L^{- 3}$ in the extended phase, our analytical result unveils that the Liouvillian gap fulfills an exponential scaling relation $\Delta_{g}\propto e^{- \kappa L}$ in the localized phase, where $\kappa$ takes the largest Lyapunov exponent of localized eigenstates of the underlying Hamiltonian. By scrutinizing the extended Aubry-Andr\'{e}-Harper model, we numerically confirm that the Liouvillian gap fulfills the exponential scaling relation and the fitting exponent $\kappa$ coincides pretty well with the analytical result of Lyapunov exponent. The exponential scaling relation is further verified numerically in other one-dimensional quasiperiodic and random disorder models. We also study the relaxation dynamics and show the inverse of Liouvillian gap giving a reasonable timescale of asymptotic convergence to the steady state.

Effects of quantum pair creation and annihilation on a classical exclusion process: the transverse XY model with TASEP

We investigate how particle pair creation and annihilation, within the quantum transverse XY model, affects the non-equilibrium steady state (NESS) and Liouvillian gap of the stochastic totally asymmetric exclusion process. By utilising operator quantization we formulate a perturbative description of the NESS. Furthermore, we estimate the Liouvillian gap by exploiting a Majorana canonical basis as the basis of super-operators. In this manner we show that the Liouvillian gap can remain finite in the thermodynamic limit provided the XY model anisotropy parameter remains non-zero. Additionally, we show that the character of the gap with respect to the anisotropy parameter differs depending on the phase of the XY model. The change of character corresponds to the quantum phase transition of the XY model.

Liouvillian Skin Effect: Slowing Down of Relaxation Processes without Gap Closing.

It is highly nontrivial to what extent we can deduce the relaxation behavior of a quantum dissipative system from the spectral gap of the Liouvillian that governs the time evolution of the density matrix. We investigate the relaxation processes of a quantum dissipative system that exhibits the Liouvillian skin effect, which means that the eigenmodes of the Liouvillian are localized exponentially close to the boundary of the system, and find that the timescale for the system to reach a steady state depends not only on the Liouvillian gap Δ, but also on the localization length ξ of the eigenmodes. In particular, we show that the longest relaxation time τ that is maximized over initial states and local observables is given by τ∼Δ^{-1}(1+L/ξ) with L being the system size. This implies that the longest relaxation time can diverge for L→∞ without gap closing.

Solving the Liouvillian Gap with Artificial Neural Networks.

We propose a machine-learning inspired variational method to obtain the Liouvillian gap, which plays a crucial role in characterizing the relaxation time and dissipative phase transitions of open quantum systems. By using "spin bi-base mapping," we map the density matrix to a pure restricted-Boltzmann-machine (RBM) state and transform the Liouvillian superoperator to a rank-two non-Hermitian operator. The Liouvillian gap can be obtained by a variational real-time evolution algorithm under this non-Hermitian operator. We apply our method to the dissipative Heisenberg model in both one and two dimensions. For the isotropic case, we find that the Liouvillian gap can be analytically obtained and in one dimension even the whole Liouvillian spectrum can be exactly solved using the Bethe ansatz method. By comparing our numerical results with their analytical counterparts, we show that the Liouvillian gap could be accessed by the RBM approach efficiently to a desirable accuracy, regardless of the dimensionality and entanglement properties.

Exact Liouvillian Spectrum of a One-Dimensional Dissipative Hubbard Model.

A one-dimensional dissipative Hubbard model with two-body loss is shown to be exactly solvable. We obtain an exact eigenspectrum of a Liouvillian superoperator by employing a non-Hermitian extension of the Bethe-ansatz method. We find steady states, the Liouvillian gap, and an exceptional point that is accompanied by the divergence of the correlation length. A dissipative version of spin-charge separation induced by the quantum Zeno effect is also demonstrated. Our result presents a new class of exactly solvable Liouvillians of open quantum many-body systems, which can be tested with ultracold atoms subject to inelastic collisions.

Time- and frequency-domain two-particle correlations of a driven dissipative Bose-Hubbard model

We investigate theoretically the time- and frequency-domain two-particle correlations of a driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model at and near a dissipative phase transition (DPT). We compute the Hanbury Brown--Twiss (HBT)-type two-particle temporal correlation function ${g}^{2}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ which, as a function of time delay $\ensuremath{\tau}$, exhibits oscillations with frequencies determined by the imaginary part of the Liouvillian gap. As the gap closes near a transition point, the oscillations at that point die down. For parameters slightly away from the transition point, the HBT correlations show oscillations from superbunching to antibunching regimes. We show that the Fourier transform of HBT correlations into the frequency domain provide information about DPT and Liouvillian dynamics. We numerically solve the many-body Lindblad master equation and calculate the Wigner distribution of the system in the steady state to ascertain the DPT. Below a certain drive strength, the Fourier transform shows a two-peak structure, while above that strength it exhibits either a Lorentzian-like single-peak structure or a structure with two dips. The width of the single-peak structure is minimal at the phase-transition point and the peak of this structure always lies at zero frequency. The positions of the two symmetrical peaks in case of a two-peak structure are given by the imaginary parts of the Liouvillian gap while their half width at half maximum is given by the real part of the gap. The positions and widths of the two dips are also related to low-lying eigenvalues of the Liouvillian operator. We discuss quantum statistical properties of the model in terms of the HBT correlation function and its Fourier transform.

A quantum algorithm for the direct estimation of the steady state of open quantum systems

Simulating the dynamics and the non-equilibrium steady state of an open quantum system are hard computational tasks on conventional computers. For the simulation of the time evolution, several efficient quantum algorithms have recently been developed. However, computing the non-equilibrium steady state as the long-time limit of the system dynamics is often not a viable solution, because of exceedingly long transient features or strong quantum correlations in the dynamics. Here, we develop an efficient quantum algorithm for the direct estimation of averaged expectation values of observables on the non-equilibrium steady state, thus bypassing the time integration of the master equation. The algorithm encodes the vectorized representation of the density matrix on a quantum register, and makes use of quantum phase estimation to approximate the eigenvector associated to the zero eigenvalue of the generator of the system dynamics. We show that the output state of the algorithm allows to estimate expectation values of observables on the steady state. Away from critical points, where the Liouvillian gap scales as a power law of the system size, the quantum algorithm performs with exponential advantage compared to exact diagonalization.

Low- and high-β lasers in the class-A limit: photon statistics, linewidth, and the laser-phase transition analogy

Nanocavity lasers are commonly characterized by the spontaneous coupling coefficient β that represents the fraction of photons emitted into the lasing mode. While β is conventionally discussed in semiconductor lasers where the photon lifetime is much shorter than the carrier lifetime (class-B lasers), little is known about β in atomic lasers where the photon lifetime is much longer than the other lifetimes and only the photon degree of freedom exists (class-A lasers). We investigate the impact of the spontaneous coupling coefficient β on lasing properties in the class-A limit by extending the well-known Scully–Lamb master equation. We demonstrate that in the class-A limit all the photon statistics are uniquely characterized by β and that the laser phase transition-like analogy becomes transparent. In fact, β perfectly represents the “system size” in phase transition. Finally, we investigate the laser-phase transition analogy from the standpoint of a quantum dissipative system. Calculating a Liouvillian gap, we clarify the relation between β and the continuous phase symmetry breaking.