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arXiv:1207.4877 · International Journal of Modern Physics B

NON-HERMITIAN QUANTUM DYNAMICS OF A TWO-LEVEL SYSTEM AND MODELS OF DISSIPATIVE ENVIRONMENTS

Alessandro Sergi, Konstantin G. Zloshchastiev

Published Sep 11, 2013• 116 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in order to effectively describe a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a generic dissipative environment. The total Hamiltonian of the model is obtained by adding a general anti-Hermitian part, depending on four parameters, to the Hermitian Hamiltonian of a tunneling TLS. The time evolution is formulated and derived in terms of the normalized density operator of the model, different types of decays are revealed and analyzed. In particular, the population difference and coherence are defined and calculated analytically. We have been able to mimic various physical situations with different properties, such as dephasing, vanishing population difference and purification.

DOI
10.1142/s0217979213501634

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We consider a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in order to effectively describe a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a generic dissipative environment. The total Hamiltonian of the model is obtained by adding a general anti-Hermitian part, depending on four parameters, to the Hermitian Hamiltonian of a tunneling TLS. The time evolution is formulated and derived in terms of the normalized density operator of the model, different types of decays are revealed and analyzed. In particular, the population difference and coherence are defined and calculated analytically. We have been able to mimic various physical situations with different properties, such as dephasing, vanishing population difference and purification.
The purpose of this dissertation is to review the salient features of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics. An introduction to Hermitian quantum mechanics is included to make this review as accessible as possible. Attempts at formulating a consistent physical theory are introduced, before examining non-Hermitian theories’ uses as convenient computational frameworks. Particular emphasis is placed on recent developments in open quantum systems that utilise non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Chapter four introduces a logic that maps a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian onto a non-Hamiltonian algebra that has a Hermitian Hamiltonian. This was put forward by Sergi, who then goes on to show its application to a two level system. The time evolution is then derived in terms of the density matrix model. This system can then be used to analyse different types of decay such as coherence and population difference. This serves to illustrate the usefulness of the approach.
We investigate an entangled three-qubit system in which only one of the qubits experiences the decoherence effect by considering a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, while the other two qubits are isolated, i.e., do not interact with environment, directly. Then, the time evolution of the density matrix (for the pure as well as mixed initial density matrix) and the corresponding reduced density matrices are obtained, by which we are able to utilize the dissipative non-Hermitian Hamiltonian model with Markovian and non-Markovian regimes via adjusting the strange of the non-Hermitian term of the total Hamiltonian of the under-considered system.
We introduce a formalism for time-dependent correlation functions for systems whose evolutions are governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians of general type. It turns out that one can define two different types of time correlation functions. Both these definitions seem to be physically consistent while becoming equivalent only in certain cases. Moreover, when autocorrelation functions are considered, one can introduce another function defined as the relative difference between the two definitions. We conjecture that such a function can be used to assess the positive semidefiniteness of the density operator without computing its eigenvalues. We illustrate these points by studying analytically a number of models with two energy levels.
We compare two approaches to open quantum systems, namely, the non-Hermitian dynamics and the Lindblad master equation. In order to deal with more general dissipative phenomena, we propose the unified master equation that combines the characteristics of both of these approaches. This allows us to assess the differences between them as well as to clarify which observed features come from the Lindblad or the non-Hermitian part, when it comes to experiment. Using a generic two-mode single-atom laser system as a practical example, we analytically solve the dynamics of the normalized density matrix operator. We study the two-level model in a number of cases (depending on parameters and types of dynamics), compute different observables and study their physical properties. It turns out that one can not only able to describe the different types of damping in dissipative quantum optical systems but also mimic the undamped anharmonic oscillatory phenomena which happen in quantum systems with more than two levels (while staying within the framework of the analytically simple two-mode approximation).
Abstract. We study the quantum entropy of systems that are described by general non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, including those which can model the effects of sinks or sources. We generalize the von Neumann entropy to the non-Hermitian case and find that one needs both the normalized and non-normalized density operators in order to properly describe irreversible processes. It turns out that such a generalization monitors the onset of disorder in quantum dissipative systems. We give arguments for why one can consider the generalized entropy as the informational entropy describing the flow of information between the system and the bath. We illustrate the theory by explicitly studying few simple models, including tunneling systems with two energy levels and non-Hermitian detuning.
Abstract In the conventional quantum mechanics of conserved systems, Hamiltonian is assumed to be a Hermitian operator. However, when it comes to quantum systems in presence of dissipation and/or noise, including open quantum optical systems, the strict hermiticity requirement is nor longer necessary. In fact, it can be substantially relaxed: the non-Hermitian part of a Hamiltonian is allowed, in order to account for effects of dissipative environment, whereas its Hermitian part would be describing subsystem’s energy. Within the framework of the standard approach to dissipative phenomena based on a master equation for the reduced density operator, we propose a replacement of the hermiticity condition by a more general condition of commutativity between Hermitian and anti-Hermitian parts of a Hamiltonian. As an example, we consider a dissipative two-mode quantum system coupled to a single-mode electromagnetic wave, where we demonstrate that the adjoint-commutativity condition does simplify the parametric space of the model.