Perturbative Treatment for Stationary State of Local Master Equation

The local approach to construct master equation for a composite open system with a weak internal coupling is simple and seems reasonable. However, it is thermodynamic consistent only when the subsystems are resonantly coupled. Efforts are being made to understand the inconsistency and test the validity of the local master equation. We present a perturbative method to solve the steady-state solutions of linear local master equations, which are demonstrated by two simple models. The solving process shows the stationary state as the result of competition between incoherent operations and the unitary creating quantum coherence, and consequently relate quantum coherence with thermodynamic consistency.     

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.     

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.     

On a tilted Liouville-master equation of open quantum systems

A tilted Liouville-master equation in Hilbert space is presented for Markovian open quantum systems. We demonstrate that it is the unraveling of the tilted quantum master equation. The latter is widely used in the analysis and calculations of stochastic thermodynamic quantities in quantum stochastic thermodynamics.     

Preservation of Quantum Coherence for Gaussian-State Dynamics in a Non-Markovian Process

Coherence is a key resource in quantum information science.Exactly understanding and controlling the variation of coherence are vital for implementation in realistic quantum systems.Using P-representation of density matrix,we obtain the analytical solution of the master equation for the classical states in the non-Markovian process and investigate the coherent dynamics of Gaussian states.It is found that quantum coherence can be preserved in such a process if the coupling strength between system and environment exceeds a threshold value.We also discuss the characteristic function of the Gaussian states in the non-Markovian process,which provides an inevitable bridge for the control and operation of quantum coherence.     

Quantum fluctuations,master equation and Fokker-Planck equation

In order to describe quantum fluctuations a general method is developed, which also may be applied to nonstationary systems as well as to states far from thermodynamic equilibrium. After a concise derivation of the master equation quantum mechanically determined dissipation and fluctuation coefficients are introduced, for which several theorems and relations are given. By using these coefficients there is set up a general Fokker-Planck equation for the diffusion of the statistical operator due to quantum fluctuations.     

Quantum Coherence in Non-Markovian Quantum Channels

We numerically simulate quantum coherence in a system of two qubits interacting with a reservoir for non-Markovian channels. The explicit form of the master equation is taken in terms of density-operator elements and is solved according to the initial conditions. In particular, we consider the effect of an Ohmic reservoir (OR) with Lorentz–Drude regularization (LDR) on the extent of coherence during dynamics. We describe the dynamical behavior of the coherence for low, intermediate, and high-temperature reservoirs. We explain the effect of the ratio of the cutoff frequency (CF) to the quantum system frequency and the effect of temperature on the quantum coherence. We show that a decreasing ratio enhances coherence, while an increasing temperature decreases it.

     

A universal master equation for the gravitational violation of quantum mechanics

In this paper we propose a master equation which contains a damping term universally violating the quantum mechanics of massive systems. From this equation follows that the quantum mechanical superposition principle breaks down if the states have radically different mass distributions. The damping of the coherence appears on a reasonable scale of masses and distances.     

A hydrodynamic approach to multidimensional dissipation-based Schrödinger models from quantum Fokker-Planck dynamics

In this paper we are concerned with the modeling of quantum dissipation and diffusion effects at the level of the multidimensional Schrödinger equation. Our starting point is the quantum Fokker-Planck master equation describing dissipative interactions (of mass and energy) of the particle ensemble with a thermal bath in thermodynamic equilibrium. When considering its associated hydrodynamic system, which rules the temporal evolution of the local density and the mean fluid-flow velocity, and imposing physically admissible closure relations, these equations can be seen as describing the fluid-mechanical evolution of the macroscopic amplitude and phase of an envelope wavefunction, thus giving rise to a family of dissipative Schrödinger equations of logarithmic type whose steady state and radial dynamics are analyzed. Also, numerical comparison with the exactly solvable models for the free particle and the damped harmonic oscillator is performed.     

Full counting statistics as a probe of quantum coherence in a side-coupled double quantum dot system

We study theoretically the full counting statistics of electron transport through side-coupled double quantum dot (QD) based on an efficient particle-number-resolved master equation. It is demonstrated that the high-order cumulants of transport current are more sensitive to the quantum coherence than the average current, which can be used to probe the quantum coherence of the considered double QD system. Especially, quantum coherence plays a crucial role in determining whether the super-Poissonian noise occurs in the weak inter-dot hopping coupling regime depending on the corresponding QD-lead coupling, and the corresponding values of super-Poissonian noise can be relatively enhanced when considering the spins of conduction electrons. Moreover, this super-Poissonian noise bias range depends on the singly-occupied eigenstates of the system, which thus suggests a tunable super-Poissonian noise device. The occurrence-mechanism of super-Poissonian noise can be understood in terms of the interplay of quantum coherence and effective competition between fast-and-slow transport channels.     

非对称自旋-轨道耦合系统的多体量子相干含时演化

本文以具有非对称性自旋相互作用的三体自旋系统为研究对象,重点研究了三体量子相干含时演化规律.采用精确量子对角化和基于量子主方程的数值模拟方法,讨论了三体量子系统中多种量子相干组分及其退相干.研究发现,量子相干组分的含时演化与整个系统的初态量子特性紧密相关.当初态为可分离纯态时,在较短时间内,非对称相互作用有利于增加多体量子相干度.这些量子相干度因受噪声影响而逐渐衰减.当初态为类Werner态时,量子相干度的分布满足加和性,即三体量子相干度等于所有两体量子相干度之和.自旋之间非对称相互作用和环境噪声都会引起三体量子相干度大于所有两体量子相干度之和.这些结论有助于多体量子资源的制备.     

Quantum Teleportation in Thermal Fluctuating Electromagnetic Field

In this paper, we study the quantum teleportation protocol in fluctuating electromagnetic field. The noisy model of quantum teleportation is constructed and the master equation that governs the evolution is solved. We analyze the effect of temperature and noisy parameter on fidelity and quantum coherence, which give us more freedom in controlling the quantum teleportation. We find that the fidelity has some relations with quantum coherence. Fidelity decay rate is dependent on the atom spontaneous emission rate and temperature. When teleporting a non-maximally coherent state, for different ranges of noisy parameter, fidelity has different variations with temperature, and evolves to different values, higher temperature leading to higher fidelity at last; when teleporting a maximally coherent state, fidelity decays to a fixed value with increasing noisy parameter and temperature.

     

Quantum decoherence due to non-linear dynamics of environment

We discuss quantum decoherence in an open system which couples with a non-linear environment with finite degrees of freedom. Even if the degrees of freedom of the environment are finite, the strong non-linearity of the environment is expected to destroy quantum coherence of the open system like a heat bath with infinite degrees of freedom. In order to demonstrate this fact, we use two-dimensional kicked rotors as the environment and investigate a master equation for a reduced density matrix which is obtained by coarse-graining the environmental degrees of freedom. Our numerical simulation shows that when the non-linearity of the environment exceeds a critical strength, quantum coherence of the open system is irreversibly destroyed. This decoherence is due to the uncorrelated response of the environment to the open system and is related to the chaotic property of the non-linear environment.     

Bath-induced correlations in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space

Quantum correlations between two free spinless dissipative distinguishable particles (interacting with a thermal bath) are studied analytically using the quantum master equation and tools of quantum information. Bath-induced coherence and correlations in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space are shown. We show that for temperature T> 0 the time-evolution of the reduced density matrix cannot be written as the direct product of two independent particles. We have found a time-scale that characterizes the time when the bath-induced coherence is maximum before being wiped out by dissipation (purity, relative entropy, spatial dispersion, and mirror correlations are studied). The Wigner function associated to the Wannier lattice (where the dissipative quantum walks move) is studied as an indirect measure of the induced correlations among particles. We have supported the quantum character of the correlations by analyzing the geometric quantum discord.     

The performance characteristics of an irreversible quantum Otto harmonic refrigeration cycle

In this paper, an irreversible quantum Otto refrigeration cycle working with harmonic systems is established. Base on Heisenberg quantum master equation, the equations of motion for the set of harmonic systems thermodynamic observables are derived. The simulated diagrams of the quantum Otto refrigeration cycle are plotted. The relationship between average power of friction, cooling rate, power input, and the time of adiabatic process is analyzed by using numerical calculation. Moreover, the influence of the heat conductance and the time of iso-frequency process on the performance of the cycle is discussed.     

On a Liouville-master equation formulation of open quantum systems

The dynamics of open quantum systems is formulated in terms of a probability distribution on the underlying Hilbert space. Defining the time-evolution of this probability distribution by means of a Liouvillemaster equation the time-dependent wave function of the system becomes a stochastic Markov process in the sense of classical probability theory. It is shown that the equation of motion for the two-point correlation function of the random wave function yields the quantum master equation for the statistical operator. Stochastic simulations of the Liouville-master equation are performed for a simple example from quantum optics and are shown to be in perfect agreement with the analytical solution of the corresponding equation for the statistical operator.     

The heat and work of quantum thermodynamic processes with quantum coherence

Energy is often partitioned into heat and work by two independent paths corresponding to the change in the eigenenergies or the probability distributions of a quantum system. The discrepancies of the heat and work for various quantum thermodynamic processes have not been well characterized in literature. Here we show how the work in quantum machines is differentially related to the isochoric, isothermal, and adiabatic processes. We prove that the energy exchanges during the quantum isochoric and isothermal processes are simply depending on the change in the eigenenergies or the probability distributions. However, for a time-dependent system in a non-adiabatic quantum evolution, the transitions between the different quantum states representing the quantum coherence can affect the essential thermodynamic properties, and thus the general definitions of the heat and work should be clarified with respect to the microscopic generic time-dependent system. By integrating the coherence effects in the exactly-solvable dynamics of quantum-spin precession, the internal energy is rigorously transferred as the work in the thermodynamic adiabatic process. The present study demonstrates that the quantum adiabatic process is sufficient but not necessary for the thermodynamic adiabatic process.     

Quantum extension of the Jarzynski relation: analogy with stochastic dephasing

The relation between the distribution of work performed on a classical system by an external force switched on an arbitrary time scale and the corresponding equilibrium free energy difference is generalized to quantum systems. Using the adiabatic representation, we show that this relation holds for isolated systems as well as for systems coupled to a bath described by a master equation. A close formal analogy is established between the present "classical trajectory" picture over populations of adiabatic states and phase fluctuations (dephasing) of a quantum coherence in spectral line shapes, described by the stochastic Liouville equation.     

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.     

Nonequilibrium phase transitions in chemical reactions

The far from equilibrium steady states of a simple nonlinear chemical system are analyzed. A standard macroscopic analysis shows that the nonlinearity introduces an instability which causes a transition analogous to a thermodynamic second-order phase transition. Fluctuations are introduced into this model through a stochastic master equation approach. The solution of this master equation in the steady state reveals that the system goes into a more ordered state above the transition point. An analogy is drawn with the nonequilibrium phase transition occurring in the laser at threshold.Supported by a New Zealand U.G.C. Postgraduate Scholarship.