1,735 research outputs found
Persistence of coherent quantum dynamics at strong dissipation
The quantum dynamics of a two state system coupled to a bosonic reservoir
with sub-Ohmic spectral density is investigated for strong friction.
Numerically exact path integral Monte Carlo methods reveal that in contrast to
conventional expectations, coherent dynamics never turns into incoherent decay
for a broad class of spectral distributions. Coherences associated with
substantial system-reservoir entanglement exist in non-equilibrium even when
strong dissipation makes the thermodynamic state of the system to behave
essentially classical. This may be of relevance for current experiments with
nanoscale devices and bio-molecular aggregates.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
A test of "fluctuation theorem" in non-Markovian open quantum systems
We study fluctuation theorems for open quantum systems with a non-Markovian
heat bath using the approach of quantum master equations and examine the
physical quantities that appear in those fluctuation theorems. The approach of
Markovian quantum master equations to the fluctuation theorems was developed by
Esposito and Mukamel [Phys. Rev. E {\bf73}, 046129 (2006)]. We show that their
discussion can be formally generalized to the case of a non-Markovian heat bath
when the local system is linearly connected to a Gaussian heat bath with the
spectrum distribution of the Drude form. We found by numerically simulating the
spin-boson model in non-Markovian regime that the "detailed balance" condition
is well satisfied except in a strongly non-equilibrium transient situation, and
hence our generalization of the definition of the "entropy production" is
almost always legitimate. Therefore, our generalization of the fluctuation
theorem seems meaningful in wide regions.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure
High-order noise filtering in nontrivial quantum logic gates
Treating the effects of a time-dependent classical dephasing environment
during quantum logic operations poses a theoretical challenge, as the
application of non-commuting control operations gives rise to both dephasing
and depolarization errors that must be accounted for in order to understand
total average error rates. We develop a treatment based on effective
Hamiltonian theory that allows us to efficiently model the effect of classical
noise on nontrivial single-bit quantum logic operations composed of arbitrary
control sequences. We present a general method to calculate the
ensemble-averaged entanglement fidelity to arbitrary order in terms of noise
filter functions, and provide explicit expressions to fourth order in the noise
strength. In the weak noise limit we derive explicit filter functions for a
broad class of piecewise-constant control sequences, and use them to study the
performance of dynamically corrected gates, yielding good agreement with
brute-force numerics.Comment: Revised and expanded to include filter function terms beyond first
order in the Magnus expansion. Related manuscripts available from
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~mbiercu
Dissipative Dynamics with Trapping in Dimers
The trapping of excitations in systems coupled to an environment allows to
study the quantum to classical crossover by different means. We show how to
combine the phenomenological description by a non-hermitian Liouville-von
Neumann Equation (LvNE) approach with the numerically exact path integral
Monte-Carlo (PIMC) method, and exemplify our results for a system of two
coupled two-level systems. By varying the strength of the coupling to the
environment we are able to estimate the parameter range in which the LvNE
approach yields satisfactory results. Moreover, by matching the PIMC results
with the LvNE calculations we have a powerful tool to extrapolate the
numerically exact PIMC method to long times.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Coherent and incoherent dynamics in excitonic energy transfer: correlated fluctuations and off-resonance effects
We study the nature of the energy transfer process within a pair of coupled
two-level systems (donor and acceptor) subject to interactions with the
surrounding environment. Going beyond a standard weak-coupling approach, we
derive a master equation within the polaron representation that allows for
investigation of both weak and strong system-bath couplings, as well as
reliable interpolation between these two limits. With this theory, we are then
able to explore both coherent and incoherent regimes of energy transfer within
the donor-acceptor pair. We elucidate how the degree of correlation in the
donor and acceptor fluctuations, the donor-acceptor energy mismatch, and the
range of the environment frequency distribution impact upon the energy transfer
dynamics. In the resonant case (no energy mismatch) we describe in detail how a
crossover from coherent to incoherent transfer dynamics occurs with increasing
temperature [A. Nazir, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 146404 (2009)], and we also
explore how fluctuation correlations are able to protect coherence in the
energy transfer process. We show that a strict crossover criterion is harder to
define when off-resonance, though we find qualitatively similar population
dynamics to the resonant case with increasing temperature, while the amplitude
of coherent population oscillations also becomes suppressed with growing site
energy mismatch.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, builds upon PRL 103, 146404 (2009)
(arXiv:0906.0592). Comments welcome. V2 - Section IV shortened to improve
presentation, references updated, new Imperial College affiliation added for
A. Nazir. Published versio
Fighting Decoherence by Feedback-controlled Dissipation
Repeated closed-loop control operations acting as piecewise-constant
Liouville superoperators conditioned on the outcomes of regularly performed
measurements may effectively be described by a fixed-point iteration for the
density matrix. Even when all Liouville superoperators point to the completely
mixed state, feedback of the measurement result may lead to a pure state, which
can be interpreted as selective dampening of undesired states. Using a
microscopic model, we exemplify this for a single qubit, which can be purified
in an arbitrary single-qubit state by tuning the measurement direction and two
qubits that may be purified towards a Bell state by applying a special
continuous two-local measurement. The method does not require precise knowledge
of decoherence channels and works for large reservoir temperatures provided
measurement, processing, and control can be implemented in a continuous
fashion.Comment: to appear in PR
Hafnium carbide formation in oxygen deficient hafnium oxide thin films
On highly oxygen deficient thin films of hafnium oxide (hafnia, HfO)
contaminated with adsorbates of carbon oxides, the formation of hafnium carbide
(HfC) at the surface during vacuum annealing at temperatures as low as 600
{\deg}C is reported. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy the evolution of
the HfC surface layer related to a transformation from insulating into
metallic state is monitored in situ. In contrast, for fully stoichiometric
HfO thin films prepared and measured under identical conditions, the
formation of HfC was not detectable suggesting that the enhanced adsorption
of carbon oxides on oxygen deficient films provides a carbon source for the
carbide formation. This shows that a high concentration of oxygen vacancies in
carbon contaminated hafnia lowers considerably the formation energy of hafnium
carbide. Thus, the presence of a sufficient amount of residual carbon in
resistive random access memory devices might lead to a similar carbide
formation within the conducting filaments due to Joule heating
Nakajima-Zwanzig versus time-convolutionless master equation for the non-Markovian dynamics of a two-level system
We consider the exact reduced dynamics of a two-level system coupled to a
bosonic reservoir, further obtaining the exact time-convolutionless and
Nakajima-Zwanzig non-Markovian equations of motion. The considered system
includes the damped and undamped Jaynes-Cummings model. The result is obtained
by exploiting an expression of quantum maps in terms of matrices and a simple
relation between the time evolution map and time-convolutionless generator as
well as Nakajima-Zwanzig memory kernel. This non-perturbative treatment shows
that each operator contribution in Lindblad form appearing in the exact
time-convolutionless master equation is multiplied by a different time
dependent function. Similarly, in the Nakajima-Zwanzig master equation each
such contribution is convoluted with a different memory kernel. It appears that
depending on the state of the environment the operator structures of the two
set of equations of motion can exhibit important differences.Comment: 12 pages, no figure
Dynamical typicality of quantum expectation values
We show that the vast majority of all pure states featuring a common
expectation value of some generic observable at a given time will yield very
similar expectation values of the same observable at any later time. This is
meant to apply to Schroedinger type dynamics in high dimensional Hilbert
spaces. As a consequence individual dynamics of expectation values are then
typically well described by the ensemble average. Our approach is based on the
Hilbert space average method. We support the analytical investigations with
numerics obtained by exact diagonalization of the full time-dependent
Schroedinger equation for some pertinent, abstract Hamiltonian model.
Furthermore, we discuss the implications on the applicability of projection
operator methods with respect to initial states, as well as on irreversibility
in general.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
The equilibrium states of open quantum systems in the strong coupling regime
In this work we investigate the late-time stationary states of open quantum
systems coupled to a thermal reservoir in the strong coupling regime. In
general such systems do not necessarily relax to a Boltzmann distribution if
the coupling to the thermal reservoir is non-vanishing or equivalently if the
relaxation timescales are finite. Using a variety of non-equilibrium formalisms
valid for non-Markovian processes, we show that starting from a product state
of the closed system = system + environment, with the environment in its
thermal state, the open system which results from coarse graining the
environment will evolve towards an equilibrium state at late-times. This state
can be expressed as the reduced state of the closed system thermal state at the
temperature of the environment. For a linear (harmonic) system and environment,
which is exactly solvable, we are able to show in a rigorous way that all
multi-time correlations of the open system evolve towards those of the closed
system thermal state. Multi-time correlations are especially relevant in the
non-Markovian regime, since they cannot be generated by the dynamics of the
single-time correlations. For more general systems, which cannot be exactly
solved, we are able to provide a general proof that all single-time
correlations of the open system evolve to those of the closed system thermal
state, to first order in the relaxation rates. For the special case of a
zero-temperature reservoir, we are able to explicitly construct the reduced
closed system thermal state in terms of the environmental correlations.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure
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