Open Quantum System Approach Research Articles

Quarkonium above deconfinement as an open quantum system

Quarkonium at temperatures above deconfinement is an open quantum system, whose dynamics is determined not just by a potential energy and mass, but also by a drag coefficient which characterizes its interaction with the medium. We develop a path-integral Monte Carlo method for examining quarkonium at finite-temperature; first, the path-integral approach for open quantum systems is developed analytically for imaginary time, and then the imaginary-time Green function is calculated with a realistic potential, mass, and drag term for quarkonium near deconfinement. We demonstrate that dissipation could affect the Euclidean heavy-heavy correlation functions calculated in lattice simulations at temperatures just above deconfinement.

Crossover from bosonic to fermionic features in composite boson systems

We study the quantum dynamics of conversion of composite bosons into fermionic fragment species with increasing densities of bound fermion pairs using the open quantum system approach. The Hilbert space of N-state-functions is decomposed into a composite boson subspace and an orthogonal fragment subspace of quasi-free fermions that enlarges as the composite boson constituents deviate from ideal boson commutation relations. The tunneling dynamics of coupled composite bosons states in confined systems is examined, and the appearance of exceptional points under experimentally testable conditions (densities, lattice temperatures) is highlighted. The theory is extended to examine the energy transfer between macroscopically coherent systems such as multichromophoric macromolecules in photosynthetic light harvesting complexes.

Dynamics of an acoustic black hole as an open quantum system

We study the process of decoherence induced by the presence of an environment in acoustic black holes, using the open quantum system approach, thus extending previous work. We focus on the ion trap model but the formalism is general to any experimental implementation. We compute the decoherence time for that setup. We find that a quantum-to-classical transition occurs during the measurement and we propose improved parameters to avoid such a feature. We provide analytic estimations for both zero and finite temperature. We also study the entanglement between the Hawking-pair phonons for an acoustic black hole while in contact with a reservoir, through the quantum correlations, showing that they remain strongly correlated for small enough times and temperatures. We use the stochastic formalism and the method of characteristic to solve the field wave equation.

On the alternatives for bath correlators and spectral densities from mixed quantum-classical simulations

We investigate on the procedure of extracting a "spectral density" from mixed QM/MM calculations and employing it in open quantum systems models. In particular, we study the connection between the energy gap correlation function extracted from ground state QM/MM and the bath spectral density used as input in open quantum system approaches. We introduce a simple model which can give intuition on when the ground state QM/MM propagation will give the correct energy gap. We also discuss the role of higher order correlators of the energy-gap fluctuations which can provide useful information on the bath. Further, various semiclassical corrections to the spectral density, are applied and investigated. Finally, we apply our considerations to the photosynthetic Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex. For this system, our results suggest the use of the Harmonic prefactor for the spectral density rather than the Standard one, which was employed in the simulations of the system carried out to date.

Accounting for intra-molecular vibrational modes in open quantum system description of molecular systems

Electronic-vibrational dynamics in molecular systems that interact with an environment involve a large number of degrees of freedom and are therefore often described by means of open quantum system approaches. A popular approach is to include only the electronic degrees of freedom into the system part and to couple these to a non-Markovian bath of harmonic vibrational modes that is characterized by a spectral density. Since this bath represents both intra-molecular and external vibrations, it is important to understand how to construct a spectral density that accounts for intra-molecular vibrational modes that couple further to other modes. Here, we address this problem by explicitly incorporating an intra-molecular vibrational mode together with the electronic degrees of freedom into the system part and using the Fano theory for a resonance coupled to a continuum to derive an "effective" bath spectral density, which describes the contribution of intra-molecular modes. We compare this effective model for the intra-molecular mode with the method of pseudomodes, a widely used approach in simulation of non-Markovian dynamics. We clarify the difference between these two approaches and demonstrate that the respective resulting dynamics and optical spectra can be very different.

Strongly driven resonant Auger effect treated by an open-quantum-system approach

We present theoretical studies of a two-step resonant Auger process at high x-ray intensity. Tuning a short x-ray pulse to the initially closed resonant channel of the 1s-2p transition in singly ionized neon, the initially neutral neon target is valence ionized. Subsequently, the strong resonant x-ray field transfers an inner-shell electron to the created outer valence vacancy, thereby creating a core-excited state. The strong resonant coupling, giving rise to Rabi oscillations involving a core transition, results in a modification of the resonant Auger-electron spectral line profile. If the valence photoelectron remains unobserved, the system of the residual ion undergoing the resonant Auger decay can be treated by an open quantum system approach. The resonant Auger-electron spectral line shape is shown to be determined by an analog of the reduced density matrix that depends on two time arguments. The equations of motion of this reduced density matrix are derived and numerical results are presented, in support of the recent experimental verification [E. Kanter et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 233001 (2011)] of this nonlinear x-ray optical effect.

Quantum simulator of an open quantum system using superconducting qubits: exciton transport in photosynthetic complexes

Open quantum system approaches are widely used in the description of physical, chemical and biological systems. A famous example is electronic excitation transfer in the initial stage of photosynthesis, where harvested energy is transferred with remarkably high efficiency to a reaction center. This transport is affected by the motion of a structured vibrational environment, which makes simulations on a classical computer very demanding. Here we propose an analog quantum simulator of complex open system dynamics with a precisely engineered quantum environment. Our setup is based on superconducting circuits, a well established technology. As an example, we demonstrate that it is feasible to simulate exciton transport in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson photosynthetic complex. Our approach allows for a controllable single-molecule simulation and the investigation of energy transfer pathways as well as non-Markovian noise-correlation effects.

Stochastic potential and quantum decoherence of heavy quarkonium in the quark-gluon plasma

We propose an open quantum systems approach to the physics of heavy quarkonia in a thermal medium, based on stochastic quantum evolution. This description emphasizes the importance of collisions with the environment and focuses on the concept of spatial decoherence of the heavy quarkonium wave function. It is shown how to determine the parameters of the dynamical evolution, i.e. the real potential and the noise strength, from a comparison with quantities to be obtained from lattice QCD. Furthermore the imaginary part of the lattice QCD heavy quark potential is found to be naturally related to the strength of the noise correlations. We discuss the time evolution of $Q\bar{Q}$ analytically in a limiting scenario for the spatial decoherence and provide a qualitative 1-dimensional numerical simulation of the real-time dynamics.

Open Quantum System Approach to the Modeling of Spin Recombination Reactions

In theories of spin-dependent radical pair reactions, the time evolution of the radical pair, including the effect of the chemical kinetics, is described by a master equation in the Liouville formalism. For the description of the chemical kinetics, a number of possible reaction operators have been formulated in the literature. In this work, we present a framework that allows for a unified description of the various proposed mechanisms and the forms of reaction operators for the spin-selective recombination processes. On the basis of the concept that master equations can be derived from a microscopic description of the spin system interacting with external degrees of freedom, it is possible to gain insight into the underlying microscopic processes and develop a systematic approach toward determining the specific form of the reaction operator in concrete scenarios.

Atomistic Study of the Long-Lived Quantum Coherences in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson Complex

A remarkable amount of theoretical research has been carried out to elucidate the physical origins of the recently observed long-lived quantum coherence in the electronic energy transfer process in biological photosynthetic systems. Although successful in many respects, several widely used descriptions only include an effective treatment of the protein-chromophore interactions. In this work, by combining an all-atom molecular dynamics simulation, time-dependent density functional theory, and open quantum system approaches, we successfully simulate the dynamics of the electronic energy transfer of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson pigment-protein complex. The resulting characteristic beating of populations and quantum coherences is in good agreement with the experimental results and the hierarchy equation of motion approach. The experimental absorption, linear, and circular dichroism spectra and dephasing rates are recovered at two different temperatures. In addition, we provide an extension of our method to include zero-point fluctuations of the vibrational environment. This work thus presents, to our knowledge, one of the first steps to explain the role of excitonic quantum coherence in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes based on their atomistic and molecular description.

An open quantum system approach to single spin logic

In this paper we propose a new method based on open quantum system approach for simulating the operation of spin networks as a Boolean logic gate. This method makes it possible to study the dynamics of occupation probabilities and investigate the influence of the environmental parameters on the gate's performance. These in turn make it possible to estimate the total gate's error probability as a function of temperature and switching speed. We test the validity of our method by applying it to a spin chain proposed as a NAND gate.

Open quantum systems approach to atomtronics

We derive a quantum master equation to treat quantum systems interacting with multiple reservoirs. The formalism is used to investigate atomic transport across a variety of lattice configurations. We demonstrate how the behavior of an electronic diode, a field-effect transistor, and a bipolar junction transistor can be realized with neutral, ultracold atoms trapped in optical lattices. An analysis of the current fluctuations is provided for the case of the atomtronic diode. Finally, we show that it is possible to demonstrate AND logic gate behavior in an optical lattice.

Entanglement transfer from electrons to photons in quantum dots: an open quantumsystem approach

We investigate entanglement transfer from a system of two spin-entangled electron–holepairs, each placed in a separate single mode cavity, to the photons emitted due to cavityleakage. Dipole selection rules and a splitting between the light hole and the heavy holesubbands are the crucial ingredients establishing a one-to-one correspondence betweenelectron spins and circular photon polarizations. To account for the measurement of thephotons as well as dephasing effects, we choose a stochastic Schrödinger equation and aconditional master equation approach, respectively. The influence of interactions with theenvironment as well as asymmetries in the coherent couplings on the photon entanglementis analysed for two concrete measurement schemes. The first one is designed to violate theClauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) inequality, while the second one employs thevisibility of interference fringes to prove the entanglement of the photons. Because of thespatial separation of the entangled electronic system over two quantum dots, asuccessful verification of entangled photons emitted by this system would imply thedetection of nonlocal spin entanglement of massive particles in a solid state structure.

Quantum jumps and photon statistics in fluorescent systems coupled to classically fluctuating reservoirs

In this paper, we develop a quantum-jump approach for describing the photon emission process of single fluorophore systems coupled to complex classically fluctuating reservoirs. The formalism relies on an open quantum system approach where the dynamics of the system and the reservoir fluctuations are described through a density matrix whose evolution is defined by a Lindblad rate equation. For each realization of the photon-measurement processes it is possible to define a conditional system state (stochastic density matrix) whose evolution depends on both the photon detection events and the fluctuations between the configurational states of the reservoir. In contrast to standard fluorescent systems the photon-to-photon emission process is not a renewal one, being defined by a (stochastic) waiting time distribution that in each recording event parametrically depends on the conditional state. The formalism allows calculating experimental observables such as the full hierarchy of joint probabilities associated with the time intervals between consecutive photon recording events. These results provide a powerful basis for characterizing different situations arising in single-molecule spectroscopy, such as spectral fluctuations, lifetime fluctuations and light-assisted processes.

Open quantum system approach to single-molecule spectroscopy

In this paper, single-molecule spectroscopy experiments based on continuous laser excitation are characterized through an open quantum system approach. The evolution of the fluorophore system follows from an effective Hamiltonian microscopic dynamic where its characteristic parameters, i.e., its electric dipole, transition frequency, and Rabi frequency, as well as the quantization of the background electromagnetic field and their mutual interaction, are defined in an extended Hilbert space associated to the different configurational states of the local nanoenvironment. After tracing out the electromagnetic field and the configurational states, the fluorophore density matrix is written in terms of a Lindblad rate equation. Observables associated to the scattered laser field, such as optical spectrum, intensity-intensity correlation, and photon-counting statistics, are obtained from a quantum-electrodynamic calculation also based on the effective microscopic dynamic. In contrast with stochastic models, this approach allows one to describe in a unified way both the full quantum nature of the scattered laser field as well as the classical nature of the environment fluctuations. By analyzing different processes such as spectral diffusion, lifetime fluctuations, and light assisted processes, we exemplify the power of the present approach.

Control of non-Markovian effects in the dynamics of polaritons in semiconductor microcavities

We report on time-resolved photoluminescence from semiconductor microcavities showing that an optically controllable mechanism exists to turn on and off memory effects in a polariton system. By increasing the laser pumping pulse intensity resonantly exciting the upper polariton branch, we observe revivals of the decaying time-resolved photoluminescence signal, a manifestly non-Markovian behavior of the optically active lower branch polaritons. Based on an open quantum system approach we perform a comprehensive analytical and numerical study of the optically active polaritons to confirm the origin of the observed features. Our findings show that negative detunings and strong excitation should occur simultaneously for memory effects to take place.

Nonzero-temperature dynamics near quantum phase transition in the isotropic Lipkin–Meshkov–Glick model: an open quantum system approach

The dynamics of a central qubit system coupled to an isotropic ferromagnetic Lipkin–Meshkov–Glick spin bath at nonzero temperature is studied. We derive exactly the reduced density matrix and investigate the pairwise thermal entanglement, the coherence and the concurrence of the central spins. Through the behavior of these quantities, we show that at very low temperatures the dynamics is sensitive to the presence of the critical point of the environment.

Open quantum system approach in multiple atomic collisions in solids and gases

A theoretical framework is briefly reviewed that treats the multiple collisions that a quantum system undergoes with particles in its environment. The dynamics is governed by the quantum Lindblad master equation for the density matrix, which can be solved using a Monte Carlo technique. Its classical limit is identified and provides an opportunity to study the role of decoherence in the quantum to classical transition. Applications are discussed related to the dynamics of ions and atoms interacting with solids and gases, and Rydberg wavepackets subject to coloured noise.

Electron capture and electron transport by fast ions penetrating solids: An open quantum system approach with sources and sinks

We present a joint theoretical and experimental study of the time evolution of electronic states of highly charged hydrogenic ions formed by capture during transmission through solids as they undergo multiple collisions and radiative decay. For this transport problem we have developed an inhomogeneous nonunitary Lindblad master equation that allows for a description of open quantum systems with both sinks (electron loss) and source (capture) present. We apply this theoretical framework to study transient coherences created in electron capture by $13.6\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MeV}∕\mathrm{amu}$ ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{18+}$ ions transmitted through amorphous carbon foils and decoherence during subsequent interaction with the foil. In the limit of thin targets we can directly probe electron capture cross sections under single collision conditions, while for thicker targets we follow the partially coherent dynamics of the open quantum system in interaction with the solid as a function of interaction time. The calculated results are in close agreement with experimental data obtained at the LISE facility in GANIL. Photon intensities from excited argon ions were determined through high resolution x-ray spectroscopy in which individual fine structure components were resolved. Measurements were performed for a wide range of carbon foil thickness to study the time development of the excited state populations.

An open quantum system approach to the evolution of entanglement in systems

Abstract We consider the evolution of entanglement in an ensemble of bi-partite unstable quantum systems and we study in detail the process of disentanglement for K 0 K ¯ 0 systems in the singlet state taking into account CP symmetry violation and decoherence.