A short introduction to the Lindblad master equation

The theory of open quantum systems is one of the most essential tools for the development of quantum technologies. Furthermore, the Lindblad (or Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad) master equation plays a key role as it is the most general generator of Markovian dynamics in quantum systems. In this paper, we present this equation together with its derivation and methods of resolution. The presentation tries to be as self-contained and straightforward as possible to be useful to readers with no previous knowledge of this field.Spanish Ministry and the Agencia Española de Investigación (AEI) for financial support under Grant No. FIS2017-84256-P (FEDER funds)

Numerical methods for time-fractional evolution equations with nonsmooth data: a concise overview

Over the past few decades, there has been substantial interest in evolution equations that involving a fractional-order derivative of order $\alpha\in(0,1)$ in time, due to their many successful applications in engineering, physics, biology and finance. Thus, it is of paramount importance to develop and to analyze efficient and accurate numerical methods for reliably simulating such models, and the literature on the topic is vast and fast growing. The present paper gives a concise overview on numerical schemes for the subdiffusion model with nonsmooth problem data, which are important for the numerical analysis of many problems arising in optimal control, inverse problems and stochastic analysis. We focus on the following aspects of the subdiffusion model: regularity theory, Galerkin finite element discretization in space, time-stepping schemes (including convolution quadrature and L1 type schemes), and space-time variational formulations, and compare the results with that for standard parabolic problems. Further, these aspects are showcased with illustrative numerical experiments and complemented with perspectives and pointers to relevant literature.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

Systematic Perturbation Theory for Dynamical Coarse-Graining

We demonstrate how the dynamical coarse-graining approach can be systematically extended to higher orders in the coupling between system and reservoir. Up to second order in the coupling constant we explicitly show that dynamical coarse-graining unconditionally preserves positivity of the density matrix -- even for bath density matrices that are not in equilibrium and also for time-dependent system Hamiltonians. By construction, the approach correctly captures the short-time dynamics, i.e., it is suitable to analyze non-Markovian effects. We compare the dynamics with the exact solution for highly non-Markovian systems and find a remarkable quality of the coarse-graining approach. The extension to higher orders is straightforward but rather tedious. The approach is especially useful for bath correlation functions of simple structure and for small system dimensions.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in PR

Quantum dynamical semigroups for diffusion models with Hartree interaction

We consider a class of evolution equations in Lindblad form, which model the dynamics of dissipative quantum mechanical systems with mean-field interaction. Particularly, this class includes the so-called Quantum Fokker-Planck-Poisson model. The existence and uniqueness of global-in-time, mass preserving solutions is proved, thus establishing the existence of a nonlinear conservative quantum dynamical semigroup. The mathematical difficulties stem from combining an unbounded Lindblad generator with the Hartree nonlinearity.Comment: 30 pages; Introduction changed, title changed, easier and shorter proofs due to new energy norm. to appear in Comm. Math. Phy

Effects of dipolar coupling on an entanglement storage device

Quantum computation requires efficient long-term storage devices to preserve quantum states. An attractive candidate for such storage devices is qubits connected to a common dissipative environment. The common environment gives rise to persistent entanglements in these qubit systems. Hence these systems act efficiently as a storage device of entanglement. However, the existence of a common environment often requires the physical proximity of the qubits and hence results in direct dipolar coupling between the qubits. In this work, we investigate the total effect of the dipolar coupling on the environment-induced entanglement using a recently-proposed fluctuation-regulated quantum master equation [A. Chakrabarti and R. Bhattacharyya, Phys. Rev. A 97, 063837 (2018)]. We show that nonsecular part of the dipolar coupling results in reduced entanglement and hence less efficiency of the storage devices. We also discuss the properties of efficient storage that mitigates the detrimental effects of the dipolar coupling on the stored entanglement.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Open Systems, Entanglement and Quantum Optics

The subject of this book is a presentation of some aspects of modern theory of open quantum systems. It introduces several up-to- date topics, such as detecting quantum entanglement, modeling of quantum noise, quantum communication processes, and computational complexity in the analysis of quantum operations. Also discussed are light propagation in optically dressed media, as well as entropy and information measure for quantized electromagnetic fields media. This book is intended for researchers and students interested in the theory of open quantum systems, quantum information theory and quantum systems interacting with electromagnetic fields