Steady bipartite coherence induced by non-equilibrium environment

We study the steady state of two coupled two-level atoms interacting with a non-equilibrium environment that consists of two heat baths at different temperatures. Specifically, we analyze four cases with respect to the configuration about the interactions between atoms and heat baths. Using secular approximation, the conventional master equation usually neglects steady-state coherence, even when the system is coupled with a non-equilibrium environment. When employing the master equation with no secular approximation, we find that the system coherence in our model, denoted by the off-diagonal terms in the reduced density matrix spanned by the eigenvectors of the system Hamiltonian, would survive after a long-time decoherence evolution. The absolute value of residual coherence in the system relies on different configurations of interaction channels between the system and the heat baths. We find that a large steady quantum coherence term can be achieved when the two atoms are resonant. The absolute value of quantum coherence decreases in the presence of additional atom-bath interaction channels. Our work sheds new light on the mechanism of steady-state coherence in microscopic quantum systems in non-equilibrium environments.     

How many bits does it take to track an open quantum system?

A D-dimensional Markovian open quantum system will undergo quantum jumps between pure states, if we can monitor the bath to which it is coupled with sufficient precision. In general, these jumps, plus the between-jump evolution, create a trajectory which passes through infinitely many different pure states. Here we show that, for any ergodic master equation, one can expect to find an adaptive monitoring scheme on the bath that can confine the system state to jumping between only K states, for some K ≥ (D - 1)(2) + 1. For D = 2 we explicitly construct a two-state ensemble for any ergodic master equation, showing that one bit is always sufficient to track a qubit.     

Quantum State Preparation and Protection by Measurement-Based Feedback Control Against Decoherence

We consider an open quantum system subjected to a noise channel under measurement-based feedback control and two prototypical classes of decoherence channels are considered: phase damping and generalized amplitude damping. Based on quantum trajectory theory, we obtain an extended master equation for the dynamics of the reduced system in the presence of feedback control. For a qubit system we analytically solve this master equation and obtain the solution of the state vector dynamics. Then we propose an effective feedback control scheme for preparing an arbitrary quantum pure state. We also study how to protect two nonorthogonal states effectively, and find that projective measurement with unbiased basis is not optimal for this task, while weak measurement with biased basis could realize the best protection of two nonorthogonal states. Furthermore, the inefficiencies in the feedback process are also discussed.     

Variational Quantum Algorithms for the Steady States of Open Quantum Systems

The solutions of the problems related to open quantum systems have attracted considerable interest.We propose a variational quantum algorithm to find the steady state of open quantum systems.In this algorithm,we employ parameterized quantum circuits to prepare the purification of the steady state and define the cost function based on the Lindblad master equation,which can be efficiently evaluated with quantum circuits.We then optimize the parameters of the quantum circuit to find the steady state.Numerical simulations are performed on the one-dimensional transverse field Ising model with dissipative channels.The result shows that the fidelity between the optimal mixed state and the true steady state is over 99%.This algorithm is derived from the natural idea of expressing mixed states with purification and it provides a reference for the study of open quantum systems.     

Steady quantum coherence in non-equilibrium environment

We study the steady state of a three-level system in contact with a non-equilibrium environment, which is composed of two independent heat baths at different temperatures. We derive a master equation to describe the non-equilibrium process of the system. For the three level systems with two dipole transitions, i.e., the Λ$\Lambda$-type and V-type, we find that the interferences of two transitions in a non-equilibrium environment can give rise to non-vanishing steady quantum coherence, namely, there exist non-zero off-diagonal terms in the steady state density matrix (in the energy representation). Moreover, the non-vanishing off-diagonal terms increase with the temperature difference of the two heat baths. Such interferences of the transitions were usually omitted by secular approximation, for it was usually believed that they only take effect in short time behavior and do not affect the steady state. Here we show that, in non-equilibrium systems, such omission would lead to the neglect of the steady quantum coherence.     

Quantum Fluctuation Relations for the Lindblad Master Equation

An open quantum system interacting with its environment can be modeled under suitable assumptions as a Markov process, described by a Lindblad master equation. In this work, we derive a general set of fluctuation relations for systems governed by a Lindblad equation. These identities provide quantum versions of Jarzynski-Hatano-Sasa and Crooks relations. In the linear response regime, these fluctuation relations yield a fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT) valid for a stationary state arbitrarily far from equilibrium. For a closed system, this FDT reduces to the celebrated Callen-Welton-Kubo formula.     

Measurement master equation

We derive a master equation describing the evolution of a quantum system subjected to a sequence of observations. These measurements occur randomly at a given rate and can be of a very general form. As an example, we analyse the effects of these measurements on the evolution of a two-level atom driven by an electromagnetic field. For the associated quantum trajectories we find Rabi oscillations, Zeno-effect type behaviour and random telegraph evolution spawned by mini quantum jumps as we change the rates and strengths of measurement.     

Quantum Evolution in Fluctuating Backgrounds: Nonideal Clocks and Foam-Like Spacetimes

I characterize good clocks, which are naturally subject to fluctuations, in statistical terms, obtain the master equation that governs the evolution of quantum systems according to these clocks, and find its general solution. This master equation is diffusive and produces loss of coherence. Moreover, real clocks can be described in terms of effective interactions that are nonlocal in time. Alternatively, they can be modeled by an effective thermal bath coupled to the system. I also study some aspects concerning the evolution of quantum low-energy fields in a foamlike spacetime, with involved topology at the Planck scale but with a smooth metric structure at large length scales. This foamlike structure of spacetime may show up in low-energy physics through loss of quantum coherence and mode-dependent energy shifts, for instance, which might be observable. Spacetime foam introduces nonlocal interactions that can be modeled by a quantum bath, and low-energy fields evolve according to a master equation that displays such effects. These evolution laws are similar to those for quantum mechanical systems evolving according to good nonideal clocks, although the underlying Hamiltonian structure in this case establishes some differences among both scenarios.     

Heat transport in quantum spin chains

We discuss the problem of heat conduction in quantum spin chain models. To investigate this problem it is necessary to consider the finite open system connected to heat baths. We describe two different procedures to couple the system with the reservoirs: a model of stochastic heat baths and the quantum trajectories solution of the quantum master equation. The stochastic heat bath procedure operates on the pure wave function of the isolated system, so that it is locally and periodically collapsed to a quantum state consistent with a boundary nonequilibrium state. In contrast, the quantum trajectories procedure evaluates ensemble averages in terms of the reduced density matrix operator of the system. We apply these procedures to different models of quantum spin chains and numerically show their applicability to study the heat flow.     

Nakajima-Zwanzig and Time-Convolutionless Master Equations for a One-Qubit System in a Non-Markovian Layered Environment

Quantum operations, are completely positive (CP) and trace preserving (TP) maps on quantum states, and can be represented by operator-sum or Kraus representations. In this paper, we calculate operator-sum representation and master equation of one-qubit open quantum system in layered environment which is a generalized spin star model. The Nakajima-Zwanzig and time-convolutionless projection operators technique are applied for deriving the master equations. Finally, a simple example will be studied to consider the relation between completely positive maps and initial quantum correlation and show that vanishing quantum discord is not necessary for CP maps.     

A Possible Time-Dependent Generalization of the Bipartite Quantum Marginal Problem

In this work, we study an inverse dynamical problem for a bipartite quantum system governed by the time local master equation: to find the class of generators which give rise to a certain time evolution with the constraint of fixed reduced states (marginals). The compatibility of such choice with a global unitary evolution is considered. For the nonunitary case, we propose a systematic method to reconstruct examples of master equations and address them to different physical scenarios.     

Multiple-scale analysis of open quantum systems

In this work, we present a multiple-scale perturbation technique suitable for the study of open quantum systems, which is easy to implement and in few iterative steps allows us to find excellent approximate solutions. For any time-local quantum master equation, whether markovian or non-markovian, in Lindblad form or not, we give a general procedure to construct analytical approximations to the corresponding dynamical map and, consequently, to the temporal evolution of the density matrix. As a simple illustrative example of the implementation of the method, we study an atom-cavity system described by a dissipative Jaynes-Cummings model. Performing a multiple-scale analysis we obtain approximate analytical expressions for the strong and weak coupling regimes that allow us to identify characteristic time scales in the state of the physical system.     

An Application of the Theory of Open Quantum Systems to Model the Dynamics of Party Governance in the US Political System

The Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad equation allows us to model the process of decision making in US elections. The crucial point we attempt to make is that the voter’s mental state can be represented as a superposition of two possible choices for either republicans or democrats. However, reality dictates a more complicated situation: typically a voter participates in two elections, i.e. the congress and the presidential elections. In both elections the voter has to decide between two choices. This very feature of the US election system requires that the mental state is represented by a 2-qubit state corresponding to the superposition of 4 different choices. The main issue is to describe the dynamics of the voters’ mental states taking into account the mental and political environment. What is novel in this paper is that we apply the theory of open quantum systems to social science. The quantum master equation describes the resolution of uncertainty (represented in the form of superposition) to a definite choice.     

Master Equation for Quantum Brownian Motion Derived by Stochastic Methods

The master equation for a linear open quantum system in a general environment is derived using a stochastic approach. This is an alternative derivation to that of Hu, Paz, and Zhang, which was based on the direct computation of path integrals, or to that of Halliwell and Yu, based on the evolution of the Wigner function for a linear closed quantum system. We first show by using the influence functional formalism that the reduced Wigner function for the open system coincides with a distribution function resulting from averaging both over the initial conditions and the stochastic source of a formal Langevin equation. The master equation for the reduced Wigner function can then be deduced as a Fokker-Planck equation obtained from the formal Langevin equation.     

The Lindblad and Redfield forms derived from the Born–Markov master equation without secular approximation and their applications

In this paper, we derive the Lindblad and Redfield forms of the master equation based on the Born–Markov master equation with and without the secular approximation for open multi-level quantum systems. The coefficients of the equations are re-evaluated according to the scheme in[(2019), Phys. Rev. A 99, 022118]. They are complex numbers rather than the real numbers obtained from traditional simplified methods. The dynamics of two models(one is an open threelevel quantum system model, and the other is the model of phycoerythrin 545(PE545) in a photosynthesis system) are studied. It is shown that the secular approximation and the simplified real coefficients may cause a small distortion of the dynamics in some environments, but a large distortion of the dynamics in others. These effects are discussed and characterized by studying the dynamics of nontrivial instances of multi-level systems in the presence of dissipation.     

Qubit-assisted squeezing of mirror motion in a dissipative cavity optomechanical system

In this study, we investigate a hybrid system consisting of an atomic ensemble trapped inside a dissipative optomechanical cavity assisted with perturbative oscillator-qubit coupling. Such a system is generally very suitable for generating stationary squeezing of the mirror motion in the long-time limit under the unresolved sideband regime. Based on the master equation and covariance matrix approaches, we discuss in detail the respective squeezing effects. We also determine that in both approaches, simplifying the system dynamics with adiabatic elimination of the highly dissipative cavity mode is very effective. In the master equation approach, we find that the squeezing is a resulting effect of the cooling process and is robust against thermal fluctuations of the mechanical mode. In the covariance matrix approach, we can approximately obtain the analytical result of the steady-state mechanical position variance from the reduced dynamical equation. Finally, we compare the two approaches and observe that they are completely equivalent for the stationary dynamics. Moreover, the scheme may be useful for possible ultraprecise quantum measurement that involves mechanical squeezing.     

Anomalous phonon-mediated damping of a driven quantum dot embedded in a high-Q semiconductor microcavity

We describe and employ a recently developed polaron master equation model to study the fluorescence spectra of a coherently driven quantum dot (QD) placed within a high-Q semiconductor microcavity (with Q the quality factor). We investigate phonon-induced damping in a regime where many cavity photons are required, and we also compare the resonance fluorescence spectra obtained using an effective phonon master equation in Lindblad form where simple analytical expressions are identified for various phonon-induced scattering rates. We consider two separate continuous-wave pumping scenarios, where either the system is driven through exciton pumping or the system is driven via the cavity. The cavity-QED (quantum electrodynamics) system is pumped sufficiently strongly such that the low-energy sideband of the Mollow triplet is tuned across the cavity mode resonance which is negatively detuned from the QD. For comparison, we also consider the case where the QD-cavity detuning is large enough such that the Mollow triplets do not spectrally overlap with the cavity mode. We find that the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the high-energy Mollow sideband shows a pronounced nonlinear dependence on the pump intensity when the low-energy component of the triplet overlaps with the cavity mode (or vice versa), and can even be reduced with increased pumping. However, the FWHM depends linearly on the pump intensity when the Mollow triplets are far from the cavity resonance. We observe similar fluorescence spectra for both the exciton-driven system and the cavity-driven system.     

Ket-Bra纠缠态方法研究含时外场中与热库耦合Qubit的演化

采用Ket-Bra纠缠态方法求解主方程, 研究了具有含时外场情况下单qubit和无相互作用的两qubit与热库耦合时的量子退相干、退纠缠现象. 对两qubit情形, 我们以共生纠缠度(concurrence)作为纠缠度量, 研究了其纠缠动力学演化过程. 研究表明即使系统内部不存在直接、间接的相互作用, 施加含时外场也能引起纠缠的震荡和复活, 这为通过施加控制外场抑制开放系统的退相干、退纠缠过程提供了理论支持.     

串型耦合双量子点处于自旋阻塞区时磁输运性质的研究

使用双杂质安德森模型的哈密顿量,从理论上研究了串型耦合双量子点系统处于自旋阻塞区时的磁输运性质,并用主方程近似方法求解了哈密顿量.结果表明,自旋轨道耦合作用导致的双量子点间的自旋反转隧穿能够解除系统的自旋阻塞.同时也研究了超精细相互作用导致的在量子点内自旋反转和双量子点之间的自旋关联对系统的磁输运性质的影响,取得了一些有价值的结果,并对相关的物理问题进行了讨论.