Power law tails and non Markovian dynamics in open quantum systems: An exact solution from Keldysh field theory

The Born-Markov approximation is widely used to study dynamics of open quantum systems coupled to external baths. Using Keldysh formalism, we show that the dynamics of a system of bosons (fermions) linearly coupled to non-interacting bosonic (fermionic) bath falls outside this paradigm if the bath spectral function has non-analyticities as a function of frequency. In this case, we show that the dissipative and noise kernels governing the dynamics have distinct power law tails. The Green's functions show a short time "quasi" Markovian exponential decay before crossing over to a power law tail governed by the non-analyticity of the spectral function. We study a system of bosons (fermions) hopping on a one dimensional lattice, where each site is coupled linearly to an independent bath of non-interacting bosons (fermions). We obtain exact expressions for the Green's functions of this system which show power law decay $\sim |t-t'|^{-3/2}$. We use these to calculate density and current profile, as well as unequal time current-current correlators. While the density and current profiles show interesting quantitative deviations from Markovian results, the current-current correlators show qualitatively distinct long time power law tails $|t-t'|^{-3}$ characteristic of non-Markovian dynamics. We show that the power law decays survive in presence of inter-particle interaction in the system, but the cross-over time scale is shifted to larger values with increasing interaction strength.Comment: 12+5 pages,7+1 figure

Braids and phase gates through high-frequency virtual tunneling of Majorana Zero Modes

Braiding of non-Abelian Majorana anyons is a first step towards using them in quantum computing. We propose a protocol for braiding Majorana zero modes formed at the edges of nanowires with strong spin orbit coupling and proximity induced superconductivity. Our protocol uses high frequency virtual tunneling between the ends of the nanowires in a tri-junction, which leads to an effective low frequency coarse grained dynamics for the system, to perform the braid. The braiding operation is immune to amplitude noise in the drives, and depends only on relative phase between the drives, which can be controlled by usual phase locking techniques. We also show how a phase gate, which is necessary for universal quantum computation, can be implemented with our protocol.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Wigner Function and Entanglement Entropy for Bosons from Non-Equilibrium Field Theory

We propose a new method of calculating entanglement entropy of a many-body interacting Bosonic system (open or closed) in a field theoretic approach without replica methods. The Wigner function and Renyi entropy of a Bosonic system undergoing arbitrary non-equilibrium dynamics can be obtained from its Wigner characteristic function, which we identify with the Schwinger Keldysh partition function in presence of quantum sources turned on at the time of measurement. For non-interacting many body systems, starting from arbitrary density matrices, we provide exact analytic formulae for Wigner function and entanglement entropy in terms of the single particle Green's functions. For interacting systems, we relate the Wigner characteristic to the connected multi-particle correlators of the system. We use this formalism to study the evolution of an open quantum system from a Fock state with negative Wigner function and zero entropy, to a thermal state with positive Wigner function and finite entropy. The evolution of the Renyi entropy is non-monotonic in time for both Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics. The entropy is also found to be anti-correlated with negativity of the Wigner function of a $2$ -mode open quantum system.Comment: 5+7 Pages, 2+2 Figure

Gutzwiller-projected wave functions for the pseudogap state of underdoped high-temperature superconductors

Recent experiments strongly suggest that a Fermi surface reconstruction and multiple Fermi pockets are important common features of the underdoped high-temperature cuprate superconductors. A related theoretical work [Phys. Rev. B 79, 134512 (2009)] has demonstrated that a number of hallmark phenomena observed in the underdoped cuprates appear naturally in the scenario of a paired electron pocket co-existing with unpaired hole pockets. We propose Gutzwiller-projected wave-functions to describe this two-fluid state as well as two competing states in its vicinity. It is argued that a pseudogap state constructed from these wave-functions may be selected by energetics at finite temperatures due to spin fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure