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arXiv:1406.7374 · Physical Review A

Exact non-Markovian master equation for a driven damped two-level system

H. Z. Shen, M. Qin, Xiao‐Ming Xiu, X. X. Yi

Published Jun 18, 2014• 28 citations

Abstract

The driven two-level system is a useful model to describe many quantum objects, particularly in quantum information processing. However, the exact master equation for such a system has barely been explored. Making use of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional theory, we derive an exact non-Markovian master equation for the driven two-level system and show the lost feature in the perturbative treatment for this system. The perturbative treatment leads to the time-convolutionless (TCL) and Nakajima-Zwanzig (NZ) master equations. So to this end we derive the TCL and NZ master equations for the system and compare the dynamics given by the three master equations. We find the validity condition for the TCL and NZ master equations. Based on the exact non-Markovian master equation, we analyze the regime of validity for the secular approximation in the time-convolutionless master equation and discuss the leading corrections of the nonsecular terms to the quantum dynamics. Significant effects are found in the dynamics of the driven system.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.89.062113

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The driven two-level system is a useful model to describe many quantum objects, particularly in quantum information processing. However, the exact master equation for such a system has barely been explored. Making use of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional theory, we derive an exact non-Markovian master equation for the driven two-level system and show the lost feature in the perturbative treatment for this system. The perturbative treatment leads to the time-convolutionless (TCL) and Nakajima-Zwanzig (NZ) master equations. So to this end we derive the TCL and NZ master equations for the system and compare the dynamics given by the three master equations. We find the validity condition for the TCL and NZ master equations. Based on the exact non-Markovian master equation, we analyze the regime of validity for the secular approximation in the time-convolutionless master equation and discuss the leading corrections of the nonsecular terms to the quantum dynamics. Significant effects are found in the dynamics of the driven system.

We consider the exact reduced dynamics of a two-level system coupled to a bosonic reservoir, further obtaining the exact time-convolutionless and Nakajima-Zwanzig non-Markovian equations of motion. The system considered includes the damped and undamped Jaynes-Cummings model. The result is obtained by exploiting an expression of quantum maps in terms of matrices and a simple relation between the time evolution map and the time-convolutionless generator as well as the Nakajima-Zwanzig memory kernel. This nonperturbative treatment shows that each operator contribution in Lindblad form appearing in the exact time-convolutionless master equation is multiplied by a different time-dependent function. Similarly, in the Nakajima-Zwanzig master equation each such contribution is convoluted with a different memory kernel. It appears that, depending on the state of the environment, the operator structures of the two sets of equations of motion can exhibit important differences.

Exact master equations describing the decay of a two-state system into a structured reservoir are constructed. By employing the exact solution for the model, analytical expressions are determined for the memory kernel of the Nakajima-Zwanzig master equation and for the generator of the corresponding time-convolutionless master equation. This approach allows an explicit comparison of the convergence behavior of the corresponding perturbation expansions. Moreover, the structure of widely used phenomenological master equations with a memory kernel may be incompatible with a nonperturbative treatment of the underlying microscopic model. Several physical implications of the results on the microscopic analysis and the phenomenological modeling of non-Markovian quantum dynamics of open systems are discussed.

We study a driven two-state system interacting with a generic structured environment. We outline the derivation of the time-local microscopic non-Markovian master equation, in the limit of weak coupling between the system and the reservoir, and we derive its analytic solution for general reservoir spectra in the regime of validity of the secular approximation. We also consider the non-Markovian master equation without the secular approximation and study the effect of nonsecular terms on the system dynamics for two classes of reservoir spectra: the Ohmic and the Lorentzian reservoir. Finally, we derive the analytic conditions for complete positivity of the dynamical map, with and without the secular approximation. Interestingly, the complete positivity conditions have a transparent physical interpretation in terms of the characteristic time scales of phase diffusion and relaxation processes.

We study the dynamics of open quantum systems driven by an external time-periodic force. Combining Floquet theory and the time-convolutionless projection operator technique we derive a time-local quantum master equation which exactly takes into account the periodic driving, while treating the system-environment interaction within second order in the coupling strength without performing the Markov approximation. The resulting equation of motion for the reduced density matrix is called Floquet time-convolutionless master equation. Employing the example of the driven spin-boson system, we demonstrate that this master equation is capable of describing strong non-Markovian effects, while yielding the Floquet-Lindblad master equation in the Markovian limit. A characteristic feature of memory effects in such driven dissipative systems is the emergence of sharp peaks of the trace-distance based non-Markovianity measure as a function of the driving amplitude, which can be traced back to quasienergy crossings leading to almost decoherence-protected subspaces through a quasienergy-induced dissipative decoupling mechanism.

We present a non-Markovian master equation for a qubit interacting with a general reservoir, which is derived according to the Nakajima—Zwanzig and the time convolutionless projection operator technique. The non-Markovian solutions and Markovian solution of dynamical decay of a qubit are compared. The results indicate the validity of non-Markovian approach in different coupling regimes and also show that the Markovian master equation may not precisely describe the dynamics of an open quantum system in some situation. The non-Markovian solutions may be effective for many qubits independently interacting with the heated reservoirs.