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arXiv:1409.5638 · Physical Review C

Importance of realistic phase-space representations of initial quantum fluctuations using the stochastic mean-field approach for fermions

Bulent Yilmaz, Denis Lacroix A, Resul Curebal

Published Nov 20, 2014• 20 citations
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Abstract

In the stochastic mean-field (SMF) approach, an ensemble of initial values for a selected set of one-body observables is formed by stochastic sampling from a phase-space distribution that reproduces the initial quantum fluctuations. Independent mean-field evolutions are performed with each set of initial values followed by averaging over the resulting ensemble. This approach has been recently shown to be rather versatile and accurate in describing the correlated dynamics beyond the independent particle picture. In the original formulation of SMF, it was proposed to use a Gaussian assumption for the phase-space distribution. This assumption turns out to be rather effective when the dynamics of an initially uncorrelated state is considered, which was the case in all applications of this approach up to now. Using the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model, we show that such an assumption might not be adequate if the quantum system under interest is initially correlated and presents configuration mixing between several Slater determinants. In this case, a more realistic description of the initial phase-space is necessary. We show that the SMF approach can be advantageously combined with standard methods to describe phase-space in quantum mechanics. As an illustration, the Husimi distribution function is used here to obtain a realistic representation of the phase-space of a quantum many-body system. This method greatly improves the description of initially correlated fermionic many-body states. In the LMG model, while the Gaussian approximation failed to describe these systems in all interaction strength range, the novel approach gives a perfect agreement with the exact evolution in the weak coupling regime and significantly improves the description of correlated systems in the strong coupling regime.

DOI
10.1103/physrevc.90.054617

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In the stochastic mean-field (SMF) approach, an ensemble of initial values for a selected set of one-body observables is formed by stochastic sampling from a phase-space distribution that reproduces the initial quantum fluctuations. Independent mean-field evolutions are performed with each set of initial values followed by averaging over the resulting ensemble. This approach has been recently shown to be rather versatile and accurate in describing the correlated dynamics beyond the independent particle picture. In the original formulation of SMF, it was proposed to use a Gaussian assumption for the phase-space distribution. This assumption turns out to be rather effective when the dynamics of an initially uncorrelated state is considered, which was the case in all applications of this approach up to now. Using the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model, we show that such an assumption might not be adequate if the quantum system under interest is initially correlated and presents configuration mixing between several Slater determinants. In this case, a more realistic description of the initial phase-space is necessary. We show that the SMF approach can be advantageously combined with standard methods to describe phase-space in quantum mechanics. As an illustration, the Husimi distribution function is used here to obtain a realistic representation of the phase-space of a quantum many-body system. This method greatly improves the description of initially correlated fermionic many-body states. In the LMG model, while the Gaussian approximation failed to describe these systems in all interaction strength range, the novel approach gives a perfect agreement with the exact evolution in the weak coupling regime and significantly improves the description of correlated systems in the strong coupling regime.
Dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking and fluctuations in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model are investigated in a stochastic mean-field approach. Different from the standard mean-field approach, in the stochastic approach, initial state fluctuations are incorporated. In weak coupling, the approach perfectly reproduces the exact quantal dynamics. On the other hand, for increasing coupling strength, above the symmetry breaking threshold, the approach provides descriptions of gross properties (i.e., time-averaged behavior) of the exact quantal evolution.
Standard methods used for computing the dynamics of a quantum many-body system are the mean-field (MF) approximations such as the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) approach. Even though MF approaches are quite successful, they suffer some well-known shortcomings, one of which is insufficient dissipation of collective motion. The stochastic mean-field approach (SMF), where a set of MF trajectories with random initial conditions are considered, is a good candidate to include dissipative effects beyond mean field. In this approach, the one-body density matrix elements are treated initially as a set of stochastic Gaussian c numbers that are adjusted to reproduce first and second moments of collective one-body observables. It is shown that the predictive power of the SMF approach can be further improved by relaxing the Gaussian assumption for the initial probabilities. More precisely, using Gaussian or uniform distributions for the matrix elements generally leads to overdamping for long times, whereas distributions with smaller kurtosis lead to much better reproduction of the long time evolution.
The time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) and density functional theory (DFT) are among the most useful approaches within mean-field theories for studying static and dynamic properties of complex many-body systems in different branches of physics. Despite the fact that they provide a good approximation for the average properties of one-body degrees of freedoms, they are known to fail to include quantal fluctuations of collective observables and they do not provide sufficient dissipation of collective motion. In order to incorporate these missing effects the stochastic mean-field (SMF) approach was proposed (Ayik 2008). In the SMF approach a set of stochastic initial one-body densities are evolved. Each stochastic one-body density matrix consists of a set of stochastic Gaussian random numbers that satisfy the first and second moments of collective one-body observables. Recent works indicate that the SMF approach provides a good description of the dynamics of the nuclear systems (Yilmaz et al. 2018; Ayik et al. 2019). In this work, the one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard model is simulated with the SMF approach by using different distributions such as Gaussian, uniform, bimodal and two-point distributions. The dissipative dynamics are discussed and the predictive power of the SMF approach with different probability distributions are compared with each other and the exact dynamics. As a result it is shown that by considering different distributions, the predictive power of the SMF approach can be improved.
Assuming that the effect of the residual interaction beyond the mean field is weak and has a short memory time, two approximate treatments of correlation in fermionic systems by means of the Markovian quantum jump are presented. A simplified scenario for the introduction of fluctuations beyond the mean field is presented first. In this theory, part of the quantum correlations between the residual interaction and the one-body density matrix are neglected and jumps occur between many-body densities formed of pairs of states $D=|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{a}\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\langle}{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{b}|/\ensuremath{\langle}{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{b}|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{a}\ensuremath{\rangle}$, where $|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{a}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ and $|{\ensuremath{\Phi}}_{b}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ are antisymmetrized products of single-particle states. The underlying stochastic mean-field theory is discussed and is applied to the monopole vibration of a spherical 40Ca^{40}\mathrm{Ca}40Ca nucleus under the influence of a statistical ensemble of two-body contact interactions. This framework is however too simplistic to account for both fluctuation and dissipation. In the second part of this work, an alternative quantum jump method is obtained without making the approximation on quantum correlations. By restricting to two-particle--two-hole residual interactions, the evolution of the one-body density matrix of a correlated system is transformed into a Lindblad equation. The associated dissipative dynamics can be simulated by quantum jumps between densities written as $D=|\ensuremath{\Phi}\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\langle}\ensuremath{\Phi}|$, where $|\ensuremath{\Phi}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ is a normalized Slater determinant. The associated stochastic Schr\"odinger equation for single-particle wave functions is given.
By extending the stochastic mean-field model by including pairing, an approach is proposed for describing the evolution of complex many-body systems in terms of an ensemble of time-dependent Hartree-Fock Bogoliubov trajectories which is determined by incorporating fluctuations in the initial state. The nonlinear evolution of the initial fluctuations provides an approximate description of quantal correlations and fluctuations of collective observables. Since the initial-state fluctuations break particle-number symmetry, the dynamical description in which pairing correlations play a crucial role is greatly improved as compared to the mean-field evolution. The approach is illustrated for a system of particles governed by a pairing Hamiltonian.
A phase-space approach is used and benchmarked for the simulation of the continuous-time evolution of large registers of qubits. It is based on a statistical ensemble of independent mean-field trajectories, where mean field is introduced at the level of the qubits, substituting quantum fluctuations/correlations with classical ones. The approach only involves at worse a quadratic cost in the system size, allowing to simulate up to several thousands of qubits on a classical computer. It provides qualitatively accurate description of one-qubit observables evolutions, making it a useful reference in comparison to techniques limited to small qubit numbers. The predictive power is, however, less robust for multi-qubits observables. We benchmark the method on the kkk-local transverse-field Ising model, considering a large variety of systems ranging from local to all-to-all interactions, and from weak to strong coupling regimes, with up to 2000 qubits. To showcase the versatility of the approach, simulations on 2D and 3D Ising models are also made.