Time-convolutionless master equations for composite open quantum systems

In this work we consider the master equations for composite open quantum systems. We provide purely algebraic formulae for terms of perturbation series defining such equations. We also give conditions under which the Bogolubov-van Hove limit exists and discuss some corrections to this limit. We present an example to illustrate our results. In particular, this example shows, that inhomogeneous terms in time-convolutionless master equations can vanish after reservoir correlation time, but lead to renormalization of initial conditions at such a timescale

Quantum Trajectories, State Diffusion and Time Asymmetric Eventum Mechanics

We show that the quantum stochastic unitary dynamics Langevin model for continuous in time measurements provides an exact formulation of the Heisenberg uncertainty error-disturbance principle. Moreover, as it was shown in the 80's, this Markov model induces all stochastic linear and non-linear equations of the phenomenological "quantum trajectories" such as quantum state diffusion and spontaneous localization by a simple quantum filtering method. Here we prove that the quantum Langevin equation is equivalent to a Dirac type boundary-value problem for the second-quantized input "offer waves from future" in one extra dimension, and to a reduction of the algebra of the consistent histories of past events to an Abelian subalgebra for the "trajectories of the output particles". This result supports the wave-particle duality in the form of the thesis of Eventum Mechanics that everything in the future is constituted by quantized waves, everything in the past by trajectories of the recorded particles. We demonstrate how this time arrow can be derived from the principle of quantum causality for nondemolition continuous in time measurements.Comment: 21 pages. See also relevant publications at http://www.maths.nott.ac.uk/personal/vpb/publications.htm

Estimates for multiple stochastic integrals and stochastic Hamilton-Jacobi equations

We study stochastic Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations and the corresponding Hamiltonian systems driven by jump-type Lévy processes. The main objective of the present paper is to show existence, uniqueness and a (locally in time) diffeomorphism property of the solution: the solution trajectory of the system is a diffeomorphism as a function of the initial momentum. This result enables us to implement a stochastic version of the classical method of characteristics for the Hamilton-Jacobi equations. An –in itself interesting– auxiliary result are pointwise a.s. estimates for iterated stochastic integrals driven by a vector of not necessarily independent jump-type semimartingales

Tropical Kraus maps for optimal control of switched systems

Kraus maps (completely positive trace preserving maps) arise classically in quantum information, as they describe the evolution of noncommutative probability measures. We introduce tropical analogues of Kraus maps, obtained by replacing the addition of positive semidefinite matrices by a multivalued supremum with respect to the L\"owner order. We show that non-linear eigenvectors of tropical Kraus maps determine piecewise quadratic approximations of the value functions of switched optimal control problems. This leads to a new approximation method, which we illustrate by two applications: 1) approximating the joint spectral radius, 2) computing approximate solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi PDE arising from a class of switched linear quadratic problems studied previously by McEneaney. We report numerical experiments, indicating a major improvement in terms of scalability by comparison with earlier numerical schemes, owing to the "LMI-free" nature of our method.Comment: 15 page

On time-dependent projectors and on generalization of thermodynamical approach to open quantum systems

In this paper, we develop a consistent perturbative technique for obtaining a time-local master equation based on projective methods in the case where the projector depends on time. We then introduce a generalization of the Kawasaki--Gunton projector, which allows us to use this technique to derive, generally speaking, nonlinear master equations in the case of arbitrary ansatzes consistent with some set of observables. Most of our results are very general, but in our discussion we focus on the application of these results to the theory of open quantum systems