Shot noise spectrum of open dissipative quantum two-level systems

We study the current noise spectrum of qubits under transport conditions in a dissipative bosonic environment. We combine (non-)Markovian master equations with correlation functions in Laplace space to derive a noise formula for both weak and strong coupling to the bath. The coherence-induced reduction of noise is diminished by weak dissipation and/or a large level separation (bias). For weak dissipation, we demonstrate that the dephasing and relaxation rates of the two-level systems can be extracted from noise. In the strong dissipation regime, the localization-delocalization transition becomes visible in the low-frequency noise.     

Hidden Caldeira-Leggett dissipation in a Bose-Fermi Kondo model

We show that the Bose-Fermi Kondo model (BFKM), which may find applicability both to certain dissipative mesoscopic qubit devices and to heavy-fermion systems described by the Kondo lattice model, can be mapped exactly onto the Caldeira-Leggett model. This mapping requires an ohmic bosonic bath and an Ising-type coupling between the latter and the impurity spin. This allows us to conclude unambiguously that there is an emergent Kosterlitz-Thouless quantum phase transition in the BFKM with an ohmic bosonic bath. By applying a bosonic numerical renormalization group approach, we thoroughly probe physical quantities close to the quantum phase transition.     

Dissipative effects on quantum sticking

Using variational mean-field theory, many-body dissipative effects on the threshold law for quantum sticking and reflection of neutral and charged particles are examined. For the case of an Ohmic bosonic bath, we study the effects of the infrared divergence on the probability of sticking and obtain a nonperturbative expression for the sticking rate. We find that for weak dissipative coupling α, the low-energy threshold laws for quantum sticking are modified by an infrared singularity in the bath. The sticking probability for a neutral particle with incident energy E→0 behaves asymptotically as s~E((1+α)/2(1-α)); for a charged particle, we obtain s~E(α/2(1-α)). Thus, "quantum mirrors"-surfaces that become perfectly reflective to particles with incident energies asymptotically approaching zero-can also exist for charged particles. We provide a numerical example of the effects for electrons sticking to porous silicon via the emission of a Rayleigh phonon.     

Phonon or electron friction of a quantum heavy particle

Summary In this paper we analyse, with the path integral method, the diffusion of a quantum heavy particle moving in a strongly corrugated periodic potential both in the case when the particle is interacting with a thermal bath of phonons or of electrons. In the first case, the integration over the phonon degrees of freedom is performed exactly and in the large mass limit of the heavy particle it gives rise to an ohmic effective action which includes a nonlocal self-interacting term whose strength is the classical friction coefficient. In the second case, the integration over the electronic degrees of freedom is more difficult; we are able to derive an approximate effective action for the heavy particle in two different limiting cases: i) arbitrary large coupling between heavy particle and electrons and linear dissipation; ii) weak coupling and nonlinear dissipation. In i) we obtain an effective action for the particle equal to that found for the phonons but with a friction coefficient given by that of a classical heavy particle in a fermionic bath. In ii) we obtain a nonlinear, but still ohmic, dissipative term. Using an instanton approach we evaluate the mobility (and the diffusion coefficient) of the particle, whose temperature dependence shows a crossover from diffusive to localized behaviour at a critical value of the friction. Finally we discuss whether the electronic and phononic frictions can reach such a critical value. To speed up publication, the authors have agreed not to receive proofs which have been supervised by the Scientific Committee.     

Enforcing Thermal Entanglement of Three Coupled Qubits by Dissipation

The stationary state entanglement in a chain with three spins is reported. Each of spins couples to its own separate bosonic reservoir. The master equation for such spins’ system is derived under the Born-Markovian approximation. The result presents that the coupling between the middle spin and its bosonic bath in some special temperature region reinforce the entanglement between the spins. By analyzing the heat current between the middle spin and its bosonic bath, we find a tight relationship between the direction of heat current from the middle spin to its bosonic bath and the reinforcement of the entanglement. The entanglement increases with the heat current between the middle spin and its bosonic bath almost linearly.     

Electron-mediated entanglement in semiconductor phonon systems

Phonons in condensed matter systems are usually treated as a decohering thermal bath. We study the entanglement between the phononic modes which is created by the interaction with a fermionic system (electrons) whose degrees of freedom are traced out as a thermal bath. The resulting picture thus reverses the usual scheme and aims at highlighting the possibility of exploiting bosonic degrees of freedom in condensed matter systems for new quantum computing protocols.     

Thermal relaxation of systems with quadratic heat bath coupling: I. Classical systems

We consider the evolution of systems whose coupling to the heat bath is quadratic in the bath coordinates. Performing an explicit elimination of the bath variables we arrive at an equation of evolution for the system variables alone. In the weak coupling limit we show that the equation is of the generalized Langevin form, with fluctuations that are Gaussian and that obey a fluctuation-dissipation relation. If the system-bath coupling is linear in the system coordinates the resulting fluctuations are additive and the dissipation is linear. If the coupling is nonlinear in the system coordinates, the resulting fluctuations are multiplicative and the dissipation is nonlinear.     

Quantum Dissipative Threshold and Its Effect on Decay of Metastable State

The coupling between system and reservoir is considered to be linear in the coordinates of the bath but nonlinear in the system＇s coordinate. A dissipative threshold is observed at finite temperatures due to nonlinear dissipation. The quantum decay rate of a metastable state including higher-order expanded terms of the coupling form function is proposed, which can be strongly decreased at finite temperatures when the quantum dissipative threshold is added to the saddle point of the potential.     

Model study of dissipation in quantum phase transitions

We consider a prototypical system of an infinite range transverse field Ising model coupled to a bosonic bath. By integrating out the bosonic degrees, an effective anisotropic Heisenberg model is obtained for the spin system. The phase diagram of the latter is calculated as a function of coupling to the heat bath and the transverse magnetic field. Collective excitations at low temperatures are assessed within a spin-wave like analysis that exhibits a vanishing energy gap at the quantum critical point. We also discuss the possible realization and application of the model in different physical systems.     

Numerical renormalization-group study of the Bose-Fermi Kondo model

We extend the numerical renormalization-group method to Bose-Fermi Kondo models (BFKMs), describing a local moment coupled to a conduction band and a dissipative bosonic bath. We apply the method to the Ising-symmetry BFKM with a bosonic bath spectral function eta(omega) proportional omega(s), of interest in connection with heavy-fermion criticality. For 0 < s < 1, an interacting critical point, characterized by hyperscaling of exponents and omega/T scaling, describes a quantum phase transition between Kondo-screened and localized phases. A connection is made to other results for the BFKM and the spin-boson model.     

Dissipative contributions of internal multiplicative noise: I. mechanical oscillator

Langevin equations for closed systems with multiplicative fluctuations must also include appropriate dissipative terms that ensure eventual equilibration of the system. We consider an oscillator coupled to a heat bath and show that a particular nonlinear coupling to a harmonic heat bath leads to a fluctuating frequency and to nonlinear dissipative terms. We also analyze the effects of the multiplicative fluctuations and of the corresponding nonlinear dissipation on the temporal evolution of the average oscillator energy. We find that the rate of equilibration of this system can be significantly different from that of an oscillator with only additive fluctuations and linear dissipation.     

Nonequilibrium dynamics of correlated electron transfer in molecular chains

The relaxation dynamics of correlated electron transport along molecular chains is studied based on a substantially improved numerically exact path integral Monte Carlo approach. As an archetypical model, we consider a Hubbard chain containing two interacting electrons coupled to a bosonic bath. For this generalization of the ubiquitous spin-boson model, non-Boltzmann equilibrium distributions are found for many-body states. By mapping the multiparticle dynamics onto an isomorphic single particle motion, this phenomenon is shown to be sensitive to particle statistics and, due to its robustness, allows for new control schemes in designed quantum aggregates.     

Dynamical mean-field approach to materials with strong electronic correlations

We review recent results on the properties of materials with correlated electrons obtained within the LDA+DMFT approach, a combination of a conventional band structure approach based on the local density approximation (LDA) and the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The application to four outstanding problems in this field is discussed: (i) we compute the full valence band structure of the charge-transfer insulator NiO by explicitly including the p-d hybridization, (ii) we explain the origin for the simultaneously occuring metal-insulator transition and collapse of the magnetic moment in MnO and Fe₂O₃, (iii) we describe a novel GGA+DMFT scheme in terms of plane-wave pseudopotentials which allows us to compute the orbital order and cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion in KCuF₃ and LaMnO₃, and (iv) we provide a general explanation for the appearance of kinks in the effective dispersion of correlated electrons in systems with a pronounced three-peak spectral function without having to resort to the coupling of electrons to bosonic excitations. These results provide a considerable progress in the fully microscopic investigations of correlated electron materials.     

Nonlinear conductance fluctuations in a mesoscopic ring

We study the conductance of a single particle on a ring subject to an arbitrary dc electric field, which is generated by a linearly in time increasing magnetic flux. The full quantum mechanical time development is calculated numerically by splitting the dynamics into independent consecutive Zener tunneling transitions and free motion on the ring. The Zener transitions occur near the avoided crossings of the bandstructure which arises from the adiabatic eigenstates as a function of flux in the presence of a static scattering potential. To account for the necessary dissipation the particle is coupled to an appropriate oscillator bath which is adjusted to give a strictly linear current-voltage characteristic for arbitrary voltage and temperature in the absence of scattering. Taking a single δ-function scatterer we find that the dissipative coupling eliminates the localization in energy space found previously and leads to a well defined resistive steady state. The scattering introduces reproducible fluctuations around the average Ohmic behavior which are caused by coherent backscattering. Their magnitude depends on the strength of the scattering potential and decays slowly for large voltages. The associated correlation energy is determined by the uncertainty of the eigenstates due to the dissipative bath coupling. Thermal averaging leads to a decrease of the conductance fluctuations proportional to T^?1.     

Phase diagram and critical exponents of a dissipative Ising spin chain in a transverse magnetic field

We consider a one-dimensional Ising model in a transverse magnetic field coupled to a dissipative heat bath. The phase diagram and the critical exponents are determined from extensive Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that the character of the quantum phase transition is radically altered from the corresponding nondissipative model and the double well coupled to a dissipative heat bath with linear friction. Spatial couplings and the dissipative dynamics combine to form a new quantum criticality which is independent of dissipation strength.     

Current in open quantum systems

We show that a dissipative current component is present in the dynamics generated by a Liouville-master equation, in addition to the usual component associated with Hamiltonian evolution. The dissipative component originates from coarse graining in time, implicit in a master equation, and needs to be included to preserve current continuity. We derive an explicit expression for the dissipative current in the context of the Markov approximation. Finally, we illustrate our approach with a simple numerical example, in which a quantum particle is coupled to a harmonic phonon bath and dissipation is described by the Pauli master equation.     

Dynamical behavior of a mesoscopic circuit in phonons bath derived by virtue of the IWOP technique

Taking into account the interactions between electrons and phonons, we study the dynamic behavior of a dissipative mesoscopic circuit for pure initial coherent state of phonon bath modes by virtue of the IWOP technique. It shows that if the bath modes are initially in coherent states, some phenomena like Brownian behavior will appear in mean charge and current of the mesoscopic circuit. The quantum fluctuations of charge and current are constant and irrelevant to the coupled coefficients between electrons and phonons.     

Current fluctuation spectrum in dissipative solid-state qubits

We present a formalism to calculate frequency dependent electron current noise for transport through two-level systems (such as coupled quantum dots or Cooper-pair boxes) in presence of dissipation. Perturbation theories in various regimes are formulated within a matrix scheme in Laplace scheme which we evaluate in detail both for weak and strong coupling to a bosonic environment.Received: 12 December 2003, Published online: 10 August 2004PACS: 72.70. + m Noise processes and phenomena - 73.23.Hk Coulomb blockade; single-electron tunneling