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arXiv:0710.5385 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Analysis of quantum semigroups with GKS–Lindblad generators: I. Simple generators

Bernhard Baumgartner, Heide Narnhofer, Walter E Thirring

Published Jan 29, 2008• 60 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Semigroups describing the time evolution of open quantum systems in finite-dimensional spaces have generators of a special form, known as Lindblad generators. The simple generators, characterized by only one operator, are analyzed. The complete set of all the stationary states is presented in detail, including a formula to calculate a stationary state from the generating operator. Also the opposite task can be fulfilled, to construct an evolution leading to a prescribed stationary state.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/41/6/065201

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Semigroups describing the time evolution of open quantum systems in finite-dimensional spaces have generators of a special form, known as Lindblad generators. The simple generators, characterized by only one operator, are analyzed. The complete set of all the stationary states is presented in detail, including a formula to calculate a stationary state from the generating operator. Also the opposite task can be fulfilled, to construct an evolution leading to a prescribed stationary state.
Semigroups describing the time evolution of open quantum systems in finite-dimensional spaces have generators of a special form, known as Lindblad generators. These generators and the corresponding processes of time evolution are analyzed and characterized as decay, dissipation and dephasing. In relation to these processes the Hilbert space of the system is equipped with a special structure, a decomposition into a sum of mutually orthogonal subspaces. The complete set of all the stationary states and the asymptotic behavior of the evolutions are presented in detail. Some unusual special facts about invariant operators and symmetries are studied and examples are demonstrated. Perturbation theory for the structure and for the stationary states is discussed and performed in case studies.
This paper deals with the asymptotic behavior of a quantum dynamical semigroup [Formula: see text] acting on the algebra of all linear bounded operators on a given Hilbert space. In practice, all these semigroups have a generator which can be written in a well-known form named after Lindblad and Davies. If the semigroup has a faithful normal stationary state ρ, necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the w*-convergence of [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the conditional expectation of an element X onto the subalgebra of fixed points. Our main results are expressed in terms of the Lindblad–Davies generator .
A well established approach to describe open quantum system dynamics is the celebrated Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad (GKSL) master equation. In this article we aim to shed light on semigroup dynamics that are not of this form. Such dynamics may appear in real physical systems describing asymptotic long-time dynamics. Thus, they correspond to semigroup dynamics applicable to a restricted set of initial states only. As a way of motivating our studies, first we review known results about the single-mode Gaussian Quantum Brownian motion channel and corresponding master equations. Next we discuss a conceptually simpler family of qubit semigroup generators and identify parameter regions of completely positive, merely positive, and non-positive dynamics. We then focus on the latter case to which we will refer to as restricted-positive, as the semigroup generator may well be physically meaningful when applied to a restricted set of admissible initial states.
Background: Operator algebras and quantum dynamical semigroups are the mathematical tools of choice for understanding open quantum systems, especially in infinite-dimensional spaces. Such tools are extremely important for the time development of quantum systems out of equilibium under the influence of environment, where conventional finite dimensional methods do not include all possibilities for interaction. Objective: The objects of the present research are the r-properties and the decompositions of generators of quantum dynamical semigroups on infinite-dimensional spaces including their Hamiltonian and dissipative part, semigroup continuity, stationary states, and positivity improvement. The aim is to set a fundament in order to think about long-time dynamics in open quantum systems. Methods: The theorem Hille–Yosida is used to get conditions for the semigroup strongly continuous generated by unbounded operators. The time-evolution operator of the system is approximated with both Gaussian quadrature and Monte Carlo integration during infinitesimal time slices, by using Inf-LCHS in conjunction. Generators were studied under decomposition of their Hamiltonian and dissipative parts, while commutant algebras were investigated for irreducibility and positivity enhancement. Results: Most systems studied for these properties presented a singular decomposition, strong and weak semigroup continuity, existence of stationary states and positivity improvement. The counterexamples were the systems with in a lack of verification for dissipative parts, and they lost smoothing property, uniqueness of decomposition, partial semigroup continuity or large errors in approximation when we perform numerically. Conclusions: The combination of the methods of operator algebra with state-of-the-art simulation techniques yields a powerful approach to study infinite-dimensional quantum dynamics. Although dissipative components are not yet completely characterized, the results improve our understanding of generator structures and long-term system behavior which will help future work in quantum statistical mechanics and quantum information theory.
Dynamical semigroups have become the key structure for describing open system dynamics in all of physics. Bounded generators are known to be of a standard form, due to Gorini, Kossakowski, Sudarshan and Lindblad. This form is often used also in the unbounded case, but rather little is known about the general form of unbounded generators. In this paper we first give a precise description of the standard form in the unbounded case, emphasizing intuition, and collecting and even proving the basic results around it. We also give a cautionary example showing that the standard form must not be read too naively. Further examples are given of semigroups, which appear to be probability preserving to first order, but are not for finite times. Based on these, we construct examples of generators which are not of standard form.
We discuss the mathematical structure of quantum states on which the master equation generates a semigroup of irreversible time evolution. As an illustration of an open system we choose to treat the harmonic oscillator, in which case we can perform the construction of a complete set of eigenelements describing both the attenuator and the amplifier. We show that the corresponding eigenelements belong to adjoint spaces, and their orthogonality and completeness is shown explicitly. We also show that our results are in agreement with earlier work by Briegel and Englert. We illustrate the use of our results by deriving previously known time-dependent results for some simple cases.