885 research outputs found
Stochastic description for open quantum systems
A linear open quantum system consisting of a harmonic oscillator linearly
coupled to an infinite set of independent harmonic oscillators is considered;
these oscillators have a general spectral density function and are initially in
a Gaussian state. Using the influence functional formalism a formal Langevin
equation can be introduced to describe the system's fully quantum properties
even beyond the semiclassical regime. It is shown that the reduced Wigner
function for the system is exactly the formal distribution function resulting
from averaging both over the initial conditions and the stochastic source of
the formal Langevin equation. The master equation for the reduced density
matrix is then obtained in the same way a Fokker-Planck equation can always be
derived from a Langevin equation characterizing a stochastic process. We also
show that a subclass of quantum correlation functions for the system can be
deduced within the stochastic description provided by the Langevin equation. It
is emphasized that when the system is not Markovian more information can be
extracted from the Langevin equation than from the master equation.Comment: 16 pages, RevTeX, 1 figure (uses epsf.sty). Shortened version.
Partially rewritten to emphasize those aspects which are new. Some references
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Quantum state-dependent diffusion and multiplicative noise: a microscopic approach
The state-dependent diffusion, which concerns the Brownian motion of a
particle in inhomogeneous media has been described phenomenologically in a
number of ways. Based on a system-reservoir nonlinear coupling model we present
a microscopic approach to quantum state-dependent diffusion and multiplicative
noise in terms of a quantum Markovian Langevin description and an associated
Fokker-Planck equation in position space in the overdamped limit. We examine
the thermodynamic consistency and explore the possibility of observing a
quantum current, a generic quantum effect, as a consequence of this
state-dependent diffusion similar to one proposed by B\"{u}ttiker [Z. Phys. B
{\bf 68}, 161 (1987)] in a classical context several years ago.Comment: To be published in Journal of Statistical Physics 28 pages, 3 figure
Transport enhancement from incoherent coupling between one-dimensional quantum conductors
We study the non-equilibrium transport properties of a highly anisotropic
two-dimensional lattice of spin-1/2 particles governed by a Heisenberg XXZ
Hamiltonian. The anisotropy of the lattice allows us to approximate the system
at finite temperature as an array of incoherently coupled one-dimensional
chains. We show that in the regime of strong intrachain interactions, the weak
interchain coupling considerably boosts spin transport in the driven system.
Interestingly, we show that this enhancement increases with the length of the
chains, which is related to superdiffusive spin transport. We describe the
mechanism behind this effect, compare it to a similar phenomenon in single
chains induced by dephasing, and explain why the former is much stronger
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