Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1306.2805 · Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

Linear response as a singular limit for a periodically driven closed quantum system

Angelo Russomanno, Alessandro Silva, Giuseppe E. Santoro

Published Sep 13, 2013• 34 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We address the issue of the validity of linear response theory for a closed quantum system subject to a periodic external driving. Linear response theory (LRT) predicts energy absorption at frequencies of the external driving where the imaginary part of the appropriate response function is different from zero. Here we show that, for a fairly general nonlinear many-body system on a lattice subject to an extensive perturbation, this approximation should be expected to be valid only up to a time t * depending on the strength of the driving, beyond which the true coherent Schrödinger evolution departs from the linear response prediction and the system stops absorbing energy from the driving. We exemplify this phenomenon in detail with the example of a quantum Ising chain subject to a time-periodic modulation of the transverse field, by comparing an exact Floquet analysis with the standard results of LRT. In this context, we also show that if the perturbation is just local, the system is expected in the thermodynamic limit to keep absorbing energy, and LRT works at all times. We finally argue more generally the validity of the scenario presented for closed quantum many-body lattice systems with a bound on the energy-per-site spectrum, discussing the experimental relevance of our findings in the context of cold atoms in optical lattices and ultra-fast spectroscopy experiments.

DOI
10.1088/1742-5468/2013/09/p09012

Related papers

Periodic driving of a coherent quantum many body system and relaxation to the Floquet diagonal ensemble

Angelo Russomanno

The coherent dynamics of many body quantum system is nowadays an experimental reality: by means of the cold atoms in optical lattices, many Hamiltonians and time-dependent perturbations can be engineered. In this Thesis we discuss what happens in these systems when a periodic perturbation is applied. Thanks to Floquet theory, we can see that -- if the Floquet spectrum obeys certain continuity conditions possible in the thermodynamic limit-- dephasing among Floquet quasi-energies makes local observables relax to a periodic steady regime described by an effective density matrix: the Floquet diagonal ensemble (FDE). By means of numerical examples on the Quantum Ising Chain and the Lipkin model, we discuss the properties of the FDE focusing on the difference among ergodic and regular quantum dynamics and on how this reflects on the thermal properties ($T=\infty$) of the asymptotic condition. We verify thermalization in the classically ergodic Lipkin model and we demonstrate that this effect is induced by the Floquet states being delocalized and obeying Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis.We discuss also, in the Ising chain case, the work probability distribution, whose asymptotic condition is not described by the form (Generalized Gibbs Ensemble) that FDE acquires for local obserbvables because of integrability. Dephasing makes some correlations invisible in the local observables, but they are still present in the system. We consider also the linear response limit: when the amplitude of the perturbation is vanishingly small, the Floquet diagonal ensemble is not sufficient to describe the asymptotic condition given by LRT. For every small but finite amplitude, there are quasi-degeneracies in the Floquet spectrum giving rise to pre-relaxation to the condition predicted by Linear Response; these phenomena are strictly related to energy absorption and boundedness of the spectrum.

•Oct 31, 2014•2 citations

Linear response theory for periodically driven systems with non-Markovian effects

H. Z. Shen, Shuang Xu, Hong Li +2 more

In the linear response theory, it is well known that the response of a quantum system to an external perturbation described by the susceptibility is formulated in the Schrödinger picture. The theory might apply to open quantum systems (or Floquet systems); however, it has ignored the non-Markovian effect in almost all works so far. In this Letter, we propose a new method to address those issues by introducing Heisenberg operators to derive an exact susceptibility for the non-Markovian Floquet periodic driving system. The susceptibility includes all the influences of the environment on the Floquet system. We will show that the susceptibility connects closely to the structure of the Floquet energy spectrum of the whole system (system plus environment). Moreover, we can read out Floquet bound states in the first Brillouin zone of the whole system from the susceptibility. The presented results may find applications in quantum engineering with open systems following modulated periodic evolution in quantum optics.

Optics Letters•Jun 8, 2018•17 citations

Exponentially Slow Heating in Periodically Driven Many-Body Systems

Dmitry A. Abanin, Wojciech De Roeck, François Huveneers

We derive general bounds on the linear response energy absorption rates of periodically driven many-body systems of spins or fermions on a lattice. We show that, for systems with local interactions, the energy absorption rate decays exponentially as a function of driving frequency in any number of spatial dimensions. These results imply that topological many-body states in periodically driven systems, although generally metastable, can have very long lifetimes. We discuss applications to other problems, including the decay of highly energetic excitations in cold atomic and solid-state systems.

arXiv:1507.01474•Physical Review Letters•Dec 15, 2015•428 citations

Generalized Linear Response Theory for the Full Quantum Work Statistics

Giacomo Guarnieri, Jens Eisert, Harry J. D. Miller

We consider a quantum system driven out of equilibrium via a small Hamiltonian perturbation. Building on the paradigmatic framework of linear response theory (LRT), we derive an expression for the full generating function of the dissipated work. Remarkably, we find that all information about the distribution can be encoded in a single quantity, the standard relaxation function in LRT, thus opening up new ways to use phenomenological models to study nonequilibrium fluctuations in complex quantum systems. Our results establish a number of refined quantum thermodynamic constraints on the work statistics that apply to regimes of perturbative but arbitrarily fast protocols, and do not rely on assumptions such as slow driving or weak coupling. Finally, our approach uncovers a distinctly quantum signature in the work statistics that originates from underlying zero-point energy fluctuations. This causes an increased dispersion of the probability distribution at short driving times, a feature that can be probed in efforts to witness nonclassical effects in quantum thermodynamics.

arXiv:2307.01885•Physical Review Letters•Aug 14, 2024•8 citations

Floquet analysis of a quantum system with modulated periodic driving

Viktor Novičenko, Egidijus Anisimovas, Gediminas Juzeliūnas

We consider a quantum system periodically driven with a strength which varies slowly on the scale of the driving period. The analysis is based on a general formulation of the Floquet theory relying on the extended Hilbert space. It is shown that the dynamics of the system can be described in terms of a slowly varying effective Floquet Hamiltonian that captures the long-term evolution, as well as rapidly oscillating micromotion operators. We obtain a systematic high-frequency expansion of all these operators. Generalizing the previous studies, the expanded effective Hamiltonian is now time dependent and contains extra terms appearing due to changes in the periodic driving. The same applies to the micromotion operators which exhibit a slow temporal dependence in addition to the rapid oscillations. As an illustration, we consider a quantum-mechanical spin in an oscillating magnetic field with a slowly changing direction. The effective evolution of the spin is then associated with non-Abelian geometric phases reflecting the geometry of the extended Floquet space. The developed formalism is general and also applies to other periodically driven systems, such as shaken optical lattices with a time-dependent shaking strength, a situation relevant to the cold-atom experiments.

arXiv:1608.08420•Physical Review A•Feb 15, 2017•65 citations

Periodic Steady Regime and Interference in a Periodically Driven Quantum System

Angelo Russomanno, Alessandro Silva, Giuseppe E. Santoro

We study the coherent dynamics of a quantum many-body system subject to a time-periodic driving. We argue that in many cases, destructive interference in time makes most of the quantum averages time periodic, after an initial transient. We discuss in detail the case of a quantum Ising chain periodically driven across the critical point, finding that, as a result of quantum coherence, the system never reaches an infinite temperature state. Floquet resonance effects are moreover observed in the frequency dependence of the various observables, which display a sequence of well-defined peaks or dips. Extensions to nonintegrable systems are discussed.

arXiv:1204.5084•Physical Review Letters•Dec 17, 2012•191 citations
We address the issue of the validity of linear response theory for a closed quantum system subject to a periodic external driving. Linear response theory (LRT) predicts energy absorption at frequencies of the external driving where the imaginary part of the appropriate response function is different from zero. Here we show that, for a fairly general nonlinear many-body system on a lattice subject to an extensive perturbation, this approximation should be expected to be valid only up to a time t * depending on the strength of the driving, beyond which the true coherent Schrödinger evolution departs from the linear response prediction and the system stops absorbing energy from the driving. We exemplify this phenomenon in detail with the example of a quantum Ising chain subject to a time-periodic modulation of the transverse field, by comparing an exact Floquet analysis with the standard results of LRT. In this context, we also show that if the perturbation is just local, the system is expected in the thermodynamic limit to keep absorbing energy, and LRT works at all times. We finally argue more generally the validity of the scenario presented for closed quantum many-body lattice systems with a bound on the energy-per-site spectrum, discussing the experimental relevance of our findings in the context of cold atoms in optical lattices and ultra-fast spectroscopy experiments.
The coherent dynamics of many body quantum system is nowadays an experimental reality: by means of the cold atoms in optical lattices, many Hamiltonians and time-dependent perturbations can be engineered. In this Thesis we discuss what happens in these systems when a periodic perturbation is applied. Thanks to Floquet theory, we can see that -- if the Floquet spectrum obeys certain continuity conditions possible in the thermodynamic limit-- dephasing among Floquet quasi-energies makes local observables relax to a periodic steady regime described by an effective density matrix: the Floquet diagonal ensemble (FDE). By means of numerical examples on the Quantum Ising Chain and the Lipkin model, we discuss the properties of the FDE focusing on the difference among ergodic and regular quantum dynamics and on how this reflects on the thermal properties (T=∞T=\inftyT=∞) of the asymptotic condition. We verify thermalization in the classically ergodic Lipkin model and we demonstrate that this effect is induced by the Floquet states being delocalized and obeying Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis.We discuss also, in the Ising chain case, the work probability distribution, whose asymptotic condition is not described by the form (Generalized Gibbs Ensemble) that FDE acquires for local obserbvables because of integrability. Dephasing makes some correlations invisible in the local observables, but they are still present in the system. We consider also the linear response limit: when the amplitude of the perturbation is vanishingly small, the Floquet diagonal ensemble is not sufficient to describe the asymptotic condition given by LRT. For every small but finite amplitude, there are quasi-degeneracies in the Floquet spectrum giving rise to pre-relaxation to the condition predicted by Linear Response; these phenomena are strictly related to energy absorption and boundedness of the spectrum.
In the linear response theory, it is well known that the response of a quantum system to an external perturbation described by the susceptibility is formulated in the Schrödinger picture. The theory might apply to open quantum systems (or Floquet systems); however, it has ignored the non-Markovian effect in almost all works so far. In this Letter, we propose a new method to address those issues by introducing Heisenberg operators to derive an exact susceptibility for the non-Markovian Floquet periodic driving system. The susceptibility includes all the influences of the environment on the Floquet system. We will show that the susceptibility connects closely to the structure of the Floquet energy spectrum of the whole system (system plus environment). Moreover, we can read out Floquet bound states in the first Brillouin zone of the whole system from the susceptibility. The presented results may find applications in quantum engineering with open systems following modulated periodic evolution in quantum optics.
We derive general bounds on the linear response energy absorption rates of periodically driven many-body systems of spins or fermions on a lattice. We show that, for systems with local interactions, the energy absorption rate decays exponentially as a function of driving frequency in any number of spatial dimensions. These results imply that topological many-body states in periodically driven systems, although generally metastable, can have very long lifetimes. We discuss applications to other problems, including the decay of highly energetic excitations in cold atomic and solid-state systems.
We consider a quantum system driven out of equilibrium via a small Hamiltonian perturbation. Building on the paradigmatic framework of linear response theory (LRT), we derive an expression for the full generating function of the dissipated work. Remarkably, we find that all information about the distribution can be encoded in a single quantity, the standard relaxation function in LRT, thus opening up new ways to use phenomenological models to study nonequilibrium fluctuations in complex quantum systems. Our results establish a number of refined quantum thermodynamic constraints on the work statistics that apply to regimes of perturbative but arbitrarily fast protocols, and do not rely on assumptions such as slow driving or weak coupling. Finally, our approach uncovers a distinctly quantum signature in the work statistics that originates from underlying zero-point energy fluctuations. This causes an increased dispersion of the probability distribution at short driving times, a feature that can be probed in efforts to witness nonclassical effects in quantum thermodynamics.
We consider a quantum system periodically driven with a strength which varies slowly on the scale of the driving period. The analysis is based on a general formulation of the Floquet theory relying on the extended Hilbert space. It is shown that the dynamics of the system can be described in terms of a slowly varying effective Floquet Hamiltonian that captures the long-term evolution, as well as rapidly oscillating micromotion operators. We obtain a systematic high-frequency expansion of all these operators. Generalizing the previous studies, the expanded effective Hamiltonian is now time dependent and contains extra terms appearing due to changes in the periodic driving. The same applies to the micromotion operators which exhibit a slow temporal dependence in addition to the rapid oscillations. As an illustration, we consider a quantum-mechanical spin in an oscillating magnetic field with a slowly changing direction. The effective evolution of the spin is then associated with non-Abelian geometric phases reflecting the geometry of the extended Floquet space. The developed formalism is general and also applies to other periodically driven systems, such as shaken optical lattices with a time-dependent shaking strength, a situation relevant to the cold-atom experiments.
We study the coherent dynamics of a quantum many-body system subject to a time-periodic driving. We argue that in many cases, destructive interference in time makes most of the quantum averages time periodic, after an initial transient. We discuss in detail the case of a quantum Ising chain periodically driven across the critical point, finding that, as a result of quantum coherence, the system never reaches an infinite temperature state. Floquet resonance effects are moreover observed in the frequency dependence of the various observables, which display a sequence of well-defined peaks or dips. Extensions to nonintegrable systems are discussed.