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arXiv:1011.0830

Comparison of analytical and numerical methods and the effect of bath coupling on the quantum decoherence

Peihao Huang, Hang Zheng, Keiichirō Nasu

Published Nov 3, 2010• 0 citations
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Abstract

The dynamics of a qubit in a structured environment is investigated theoretically. One point of view of the model is the spin-boson model with a Lorentz shaped spectral density. An alternative view is a qubit coupled to harmonic oscillator (HO), which in turn coupled to a Ohmic environment. Two different methods are applied and compared for this problem. One is a perturbation method based on a unitary transformation. Since the transformed hamiltonian is of rotating wave approximation (RWA) form, we call it the transformed rotating wave approximation (TRWA) method. And the other one is the numerically exact method of the quasi-adiabatic propagator path-integral (QUAPI) method. TRWA method can be applied from the first point of view. And the QUAPI method can applied from both points of views. We find that from the 1st point of view QUAPI only works well for large $Γ$. Since the memory time is too long for the practical evaluation of QUAPI when $Γ$ is small. We call this treatment as QUAPI1. And from the 2nd point of view, QUAPI works well for small $Γ$, since the non-adiabatic effect become more important as $Γ$ increases, one need smaller time-step and more steps to obtain accurate result which also quickly runs out the computational resources. This treatment is called QUAPI2. We find that the TRWA method works well for the whole parameter range of $Γ$ and show good agreement with QUAPI1 and QUAPI2. On the other hand, we find that the decoherence of the qubit can be reduced with increasing coupling between HO and bath. This result may be relevant to the design of quantum computer.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1011.0830

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•Jan 1, 2008•43 citations
The dynamics of a qubit in a structured environment is investigated theoretically. One point of view of the model is the spin-boson model with a Lorentz shaped spectral density. An alternative view is a qubit coupled to harmonic oscillator (HO), which in turn coupled to a Ohmic environment. Two different methods are applied and compared for this problem. One is a perturbation method based on a unitary transformation. Since the transformed hamiltonian is of rotating wave approximation (RWA) form, we call it the transformed rotating wave approximation (TRWA) method. And the other one is the numerically exact method of the quasi-adiabatic propagator path-integral (QUAPI) method. TRWA method can be applied from the first point of view. And the QUAPI method can applied from both points of views. We find that from the 1st point of view QUAPI only works well for large ΓΓΓ. Since the memory time is too long for the practical evaluation of QUAPI when ΓΓΓ is small. We call this treatment as QUAPI1. And from the 2nd point of view, QUAPI works well for small ΓΓΓ, since the non-adiabatic effect become more important as ΓΓΓ increases, one need smaller time-step and more steps to obtain accurate result which also quickly runs out the computational resources. This treatment is called QUAPI2. We find that the TRWA method works well for the whole parameter range of ΓΓΓ and show good agreement with QUAPI1 and QUAPI2. On the other hand, we find that the decoherence of the qubit can be reduced with increasing coupling between HO and bath. This result may be relevant to the design of quantum computer.
The dynamics of a qubit under the decoherence of a two level fluctuator (TLF) in addition to its coupling to a bosonic bath is investigated theoretically. Two different methods are applied and compared for this problem. One is a perturbation method based on a unitary transformation. With the merit of our unitary transformation, non-adiabatic effect can be taken into account efficiently. And the other one is the numerically exact method, namely the quasi-adiabatic path-integral (QUAPI) propagator technique. We find that the analytical method works well for a wide parameter range and show good agreement with QUAPI. On the other hand, The enhancement and the reduction of quantum decoherence of the qubit is checked with varying bath temperature TTT and TLF-bath coupling.
Path integral methods, such as the quasi-adiabatic propagator path integral (QUAPI), are widely used in general-purpose and highly accurate numerical benchmark simulations of open quantum systems, particularly in regimes inaccessible to perturbative methods. Nevertheless, the applicability of the QUAPI method to realistic systems of interest is restricted by the exponentially growing computer memory requirements with respect to the size of the quantum system and the time range of non-Markovian correlation effects. This exponential "wall" becomes even more severe for multiple non-commuting fluctuating environments. In the present work, we address the numerical efficiency and accuracy of approximations that have been introduced for the QUAPI method with a single general environment, for the case of two independent non-commuting environments where one of them is considered as a pure dephasing environment. In particular, we consider a sharply defined cutoff of the memory time, path filtering, and mask assisted coarse graining of influence functional coefficients as approximations. We demonstrate that commonly applied numerical techniques, such as path filtering, cannot be straightforwardly transferred to the two-bath case even in the weak-coupling and quasi-Markovian limits. On the other hand, the sharply defined memory cutoff can be accurately handled with the mask assisted coarse graining approach. Our findings demonstrate that if system coupling operators to different baths do not commute, the additive nature of the statistically independent environments may be misleading. In particular, the quasi-Markovian nature of a pure dephasing bath is lost once there simultaneously exists another non-commuting source of fluctuations.
With increasing performance of actual qubit devices, even subtle effects in the interaction between qubits and environmental degrees of freedom become progressively relevant and experimentally visible. This applies particularly to the timescale separations that are at the basis of the most commonly used numerical simulation platform for qubit operations, namely, the conventional Lindblad master equation (LE): the Markov approximation and the rotating wave approximation (RWA). In this contribution, we shed light on the questions (i) to which extent it is possible to monitor violations of either of these timescale separations experimentally and (ii) which of them is the most severe to provide highly accurate predictions within (approximate) numerical schemes in relevant parameter ranges. For this purpose, we compare three simulation methods for the reduced density matrix with progressively growing accuracy. In particular, predictions for relaxation and decoherence of a qubit system in the presence of reservoirs with Ohmic and sub-Ohmic spectral densities are explored and, with the aid of proper protocols based on Ramsey experiments, the role of non-Markovianity and RWA are revealed. We discuss potential implications for future experiments and the design of approximate yet accurate numerical approaches.
In this paper we firstly obtain two kinds of effective spectral density functions by setting the cut-off frequencies of baths be infinite and finite. Secondly, we investigate the reduced dynamics of open qubits in four kinds of systems constructed with the basic spin-boson model. It is shown that the qubit has different dynamics governed by the two kinds of spectral density functions. In addition, we obtained that a qubit coupled to an intermediate harmonic oscillator has longer decoherence and relaxation times as they are coupled to a common bath than to their respective baths. In solving the dynamics of qubits we use a numerically exact algorithm, iterative tensor multiplication algorithm based on the quasiadiabatic propagator path integral scheme.
The interaction of qubits with quantized modes of electromagnetic fields has been largely addressed in the quantum optics literature under the rotating wave approximation (RWA), where rapid oscillating terms in the qubit-mode interaction picture Hamiltonian can be neglected. At the same time, it is generally accepted that, provided the interaction is sufficiently strong or for long times, the RWA tends to describe physical phenomena incorrectly. In this work, we extend the investigation of the validity of the RWA to a more involved setup where two qubit-mode subsystems are brought to interaction through their harmonic coordinates. Our treatment is all analytic thanks to a sequence of carefully chosen unitary transformations, which allows us to diagonalize the Hamiltonian within and without the RWA. By also considering qubit dephasing, we find that the purity of the two-qubit state presents non-Markovian features which become more pronounced as the coupling between the modes gets stronger and the RWA loses its validity. In the same regime, there occurs fast generation of entanglement between the qubits, which is also not correctly described under the RWA. The setup and results presented here clearly show the limitations of the RWA in a scenario amenable to exact description and free from numerical uncertainties. Consequently, it may be of interest for the community working with cavity or circuit quantum electrodynamic systems in the strong coupling regime.
We study the dissipative dynamics of a biased two-level system (TLS) coupled to a harmonic oscillator (HO), the latter interacting with an Ohmic environment. Using Van-Vleck perturbation theory and going to second order in the coupling between TLS and HO, we show how the Hamiltonian of the TLS-HO system can be diagonalized analytically. Our model represents an improvement to the usually used Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian as an initial rotating wave approximation is avoided. By assuming a weak coupling to the thermal bath, analytical expressions for the time evolution of the populations of the TLS are\nfound: the population is characterized by a multiplicity of damped oscillations together with a complex relaxation dynamics towards thermal equilibrium. The long time evolution is characterized by a single relaxation rate, which is largest at resonance and whose expression can be given in closed analytic form.