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arXiv:0911.0556 · Physical Review Letters

Thermodynamics of Quantum Jump Trajectories

Juan P. Garrahan, Igor Lesanovsky

Published Apr 19, 2010• 296 citations
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Abstract

We apply the large-deviation method to study trajectories in dissipative quantum systems. We show that in the long time limit the statistics of quantum jumps can be understood from thermodynamic arguments in terms of dynamical phases and transitions between them in trajectory space. We illustrate our approach with three simple examples: a driven 2-level system where we find a particular scale invariance point in the ensemble of trajectories of emitted photons; a blinking 3-level system, where we argue that intermittency in the photon count is related to a crossover between distinct dynamical phases; and a micromaser, where we find an actual first-order phase transition in the ensemble of trajectories.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.104.160601

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We apply the large-deviation method to study trajectories in dissipative quantum systems. We show that in the long time limit the statistics of quantum jumps can be understood from thermodynamic arguments in terms of dynamical phases and transitions between them in trajectory space. We illustrate our approach with three simple examples: a driven 2-level system where we find a particular scale invariance point in the ensemble of trajectories of emitted photons; a blinking 3-level system, where we argue that intermittency in the photon count is related to a crossover between distinct dynamical phases; and a micromaser, where we find an actual first-order phase transition in the ensemble of trajectories.
We apply a large-deviation method to study the diffusive trajectories of the quadratures of light emitted from open quantum systems. We formulate the study of quadrature trajectories in terms of characteristic operators and show that, in the long-time limit, the statistics of such trajectories obey a large-deviation principle. We take our motivation from homodyne detection schemes which allow the statistics of light quadratures to be measured. We illustrate our approach with four examples of increasing complexity: a driven two-level system, a ``blinking'' three-level system, a pair of weakly coupled two-level driven systems, and the micromaser. We discuss how quadrature operators can serve as alternative order parameters for the classification of dynamical phases, which is particularly useful in cases where the statistics of quantum jumps cannot distinguish such phases. The formalism we introduce also allows us to analyze the properties of the light emitted in quantum-jump trajectories which deviate far from the typical dynamics.
The large-deviation method can be used to study the measurement trajectories of open quantum systems. For optical arrangements this formalism allows to describe the long time properties of the (nonequilibrium) photon counting statistics in the context of a (equilibrium) thermodynamic approach defined in terms of dynamical phases and transitions between them in the trajectory space [J. P. Garrahan and I. Lesanovsky, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 160601 (2010)]. In this paper, we study the thermodynamic approach for fluorescent systems coupled to complex reservoirs that induce stochastic fluctuations in their dynamical parameters. In a fast modulation limit the thermodynamics corresponds to that of a Markovian two-level system. In a slow modulation limit, the thermodynamic properties are equivalent to those of a finite system that in an infinite-size limit is characterized by a first-order transition. The dynamical phases correspond to different intensity regimes, while the size of the system is measured by the transition rate of the bath fluctuations. As a function of a dimensionless intensive variable, the first and second derivatives of the thermodynamic potential develop an abrupt change and a narrow peak, respectively. Their scaling properties are consistent with a double-Gaussian probability distribution of the associated extensive variable.
We describe how to characterize dynamical phase transitions in open quantum systems from a purely dynamical perspective, namely, through the statistical behavior of quantum jump trajectories. This approach goes beyond considering only properties of the steady state. While in small quantum systems dynamical transitions can only occur trivially at limiting values of the controlling parameters, in many-body systems they arise as collective phenomena and within this perspective they are reminiscent of thermodynamic phase transitions. We illustrate this in open models of increasing complexity: a three-level system, the micromaser, and a dissipative version of the quantum Ising model. In these examples dynamical transitions are accompanied by clear changes in static behavior. This is however not always the case, and, in general, dynamical phases need to be uncovered by observables which are strictly dynamical, e.g., dynamical counting fields. We demonstrate this via the example of a class of models of dissipative quantum glasses, whose dynamics can vary widely despite having identical (and trivial) stationary states.
We study the dynamics of the single-atom maser, or micromaser, by means of the recently introduced method of thermodynamics of quantum jump trajectories. We find that the dynamics of the micromaser displays multiple space-time phase transitions, i.e., phase transitions in ensembles of quantum jump trajectories. This rich dynamical phase structure becomes apparent when trajectories are classified by dynamical observables that quantify dynamical activity, such as the number of atoms that have changed state while traversing the cavity. The space-time transitions can be either first order or continuous, and are controlled not just by standard parameters of the micromaser but also by nonequilibrium "counting" fields. We discuss how the dynamical phase behavior relates to the better known stationary-state properties of the micromaser.
We consider Markovian open quantum systems subject to stochastic resetting, which means that the dissipative time evolution is reset at randomly distributed times to the initial state. We show that the ensuing dynamics is non-Markovian and has the form of a generalized Lindblad equation. Interestingly, the statistics of quantum-jumps can be exactly derived. This is achieved by combining techniques from the thermodynamics of quantum-jump trajectories with the renewal structure of the resetting dynamics. We consider as an application of our analysis a driven two-level and an intermittent three-level system. Our findings show that stochastic resetting may be exploited as a tool to tailor the statistics of the quantum-jump trajectories and the dynamical phases of open quantum systems.
We consider Markovian open quantum systems subject to stochastic resetting, which means that the dissipative time evolution is reset at randomly distributed times to the initial state. We show that the ensuing dynamics is non-Markovian and has the form of a generalized Lindblad equation. Interestingly, the statistics of quantum-jumps can be exactly derived. This is achieved by combining techniques from the thermodynamics of quantum-jump trajectories with the renewal structure of the resetting dynamics. We consider as an application of our analysis a driven two-level and an intermittent three-level system. Our findings show that stochastic resetting may be exploited as a tool to tailor the statistics of the quantum-jump trajectories and the dynamical phases of open quantum systems.