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arXiv:1411.2934 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Multiscale dynamics of open three-level quantum systems with two quasi-degenerate levels

Marco Merkli, Haifeng Song, G. P. Berman

Published Jun 16, 2015• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider a three-level quantum system interacting with a bosonic thermal reservoir. Two energy levels of the system are nearly degenerate but well separated from the third one. The system-reservoir interaction constant is larger than the energy difference of the degenerate levels, but it is smaller than the separation between the latter and the remaining level. We show that the quasi-degeneracy of energy levels leads to the existence of a manifold of quasi-stationary states, and the dynamics exhibits two characteristic time scales. On the first, shorter one, initial states approach the quasi-stationary manifold. Then, on the much longer second time scale, the final unique equilibrium is reached.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/48/27/275304

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We consider a three-level quantum system interacting with a bosonic thermal reservoir. Two energy levels of the system are nearly degenerate but well separated from the third one. The system-reservoir interaction constant is larger than the energy difference of the degenerate levels, but it is smaller than the separation between the latter and the remaining level. We show that the quasi-degeneracy of energy levels leads to the existence of a manifold of quasi-stationary states, and the dynamics exhibits two characteristic time scales. On the first, shorter one, initial states approach the quasi-stationary manifold. Then, on the much longer second time scale, the final unique equilibrium is reached.
The usual paradigm of open quantum systems falls short when the environment is actually coupled to additional fields or components that drive it out of equilibrium. Here we explore the simplest such scenario, by considering a two level system coupled to a first thermal reservoir that in turn couples to a second thermal bath at a different temperature. We derive a master equation description for the system and show that, in this situation, the dynamics can be especially rich. In particular, we observe prethermalization, a transitory phenomenon in which the system initially approaches thermal equilibrium with respect to the first reservoir, but after a longer time converges to the thermal state dictated by the temperature of the second environment. Using analytical arguments and numerical simulations, we analyze the occurrence of this phenomenon, and how it depends on temperatures and coupling strengths. The phenomenology gets even richer if the system is placed between two such non-equilibrium environments. In this case, the energy current through the system may exhibit transient features and even switch direction, before the system eventually reaches a non-equilibrium steady state.
Open quantum systems with nearly degenerate energy levels have been shown to exhibit long-lived metastable states in the approach to equilibrium, even when modelled with certain Lindblad-form quantum master equations. This is a result of dramatic separation of timescales due to differences between Liouvillian eigenvalues. These metastable states often have nonzero coherences that die off only in the long-time limit once the system reaches thermal equilibrium. We examine two distinct situations that give rise to this effect: one in which dissipative dynamics couple together states only within a nearly degenerate subspace, and one in which they give rise to jumps over finite-energy splittings, between nearly degenerate subspaces. We find, in each case, that a change of basis can often lead to a representation that more naturally captures the impact of the system-bath interaction than does the energy eigenbasis, revealing that separate timescales are associated with separate processes (e.g., decoherence into a nonenergy eigenbasis, decay of population correlations to the initial state). This approach is paired with the inspection of quantum trajectories, which further provide intuition as to how open system evolution is characterized when coherent oscillations, thermal relaxation, and decoherence all occur simultaneously. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Abstract The usual paradigm of open quantum systems falls short when the environment is actually coupled to additional fields or components that drive it out of equilibrium. Here we explore the simplest such scenario, by considering a two level system coupled to a first thermal reservoir that in turn couples to a second thermal bath at a different temperature. We derive a master equation description for the system and show that, in this situation, the dynamics can be especially rich. In particular, we observe prethermalization, a transitory phenomenon in which the system initially approaches thermal equilibrium with respect to the first reservoir, but after a longer time converges to the thermal state dictated by the temperature of the second environment. Using analytical arguments and numerical simulations, we analyze the occurrence of this phenomenon, and how it depends on temperatures and coupling strengths. The phenomenology gets even richer if the system is placed between two such non-equilibrium environments. In this case, the energy current through the system may exhibit transient features and even switch direction, before the system eventually reaches a non-equilibrium steady state.
We consider the dynamics of an open three-level quantum degenerate system. One of the levels in this system is degenerate. The system interacts with three reservoirs (quantum fields) and a classical external field. We show that nondecaying so-called dark states are generated in this system. Since the interactions of the degenerate level with two different reservoirs are different (correspond to different spaces of dark states), we can describe excitation and manipulations for this kind of states (in particular, observation in spectroscopical experiments). Possible applications of this model in quantum optics, quantum computations, and quantum photosynthesis are discussed.
A system of bosons in a harmonic trap is cooled via their interactions with a thermal reservoir. We derive the master equation that governs the evolution of the system and may describe diverse physical situations: laser cooling, sympathetic cooling, etc. We investigate in detail the dynamics of the gas in the Lamb-Dicke limit, whereby the size of the trap is small in comparison with the de Broglie wavelength of the reservoir quanta. In this case, the dynamics is characterized by two time scales. First, an equilibrium is reached on a fast time scale within the degenerated subspaces of the system. Then, an equilibrium between these subspaces is reached on a slow time scale .
Abstract In the framework of a novel dissipative scheme, we have investigated the quantum dynamics of an oscillating system interacting with two reservoirs with different temperatures trough different time-dependent coupling functions. The reduced density matrix, quantum optical characteristic functions, and (quasi) distribution functions like Husimi, Glauber–Sudarshan and Wigner functions on the phase space of the oscillator are obtained. The problem has been generalized to the case where the oscillator is interacting with n distinctive reservoirs, and a quantum current and an effective reservoir is introduced. Finally, the quantum dynamics of a two-level system interacting with two reservoirs has been investigated, and the exact reduced density matrix is obtained.