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arXiv:1511.03898 · ESAIM Control Optimisation and Calculus of Variations

Well-posedness and convergence of the Lindblad master equation for a quantum harmonic oscillator with multi-photon drive and damping

Rémi Azouit, Alain Sarlette, Pierre Rouchon

Published Jun 22, 2016• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the model of a quantum harmonic oscillator governed by a Lindblad master equation where the typical drive and loss channels are multi-photon processes instead of single-photon ones; this implies a dissipation operator of order 2k with integer k > 1 for a k-photon process. We prove that the corresponding PDE makes the state converge, for large time, to an invariant subspace spanned by a set of k selected basis vectors; the latter physically correspond to so-called coherent states with the same amplitude and uniformly distributed phases. We also show that this convergence features a finite set of bounded invariant functionals of the state (physical observables), such that the final state in the invariant subspace can be directly predicted from the initial state. The proof includes the full arguments towards the well-posedness of the corresponding dynamics in proper Banach spaces of Hermitian trace-class operators equipped with adapted nuclear norms. It relies on the Hille−Yosida theorem and Lyapunov convergence analysis.

DOI
10.1051/cocv/2016050

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We consider the model of a quantum harmonic oscillator governed by a Lindblad master equation where the typical drive and loss channels are multi-photon processes instead of single-photon ones; this implies a dissipation operator of order 2k with integer k > 1 for a k-photon process. We prove that the corresponding PDE makes the state converge, for large time, to an invariant subspace spanned by a set of k selected basis vectors; the latter physically correspond to so-called coherent states with the same amplitude and uniformly distributed phases. We also show that this convergence features a finite set of bounded invariant functionals of the state (physical observables), such that the final state in the invariant subspace can be directly predicted from the initial state. The proof includes the full arguments towards the well-posedness of the corresponding dynamics in proper Banach spaces of Hermitian trace-class operators equipped with adapted nuclear norms. It relies on the Hille−Yosida theorem and Lyapunov convergence analysis.
The damping of the harmonic oscillator is studied in the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems. A generalization of the fundamental constraints on quantum mechanical diffusion coefficients which appear in the master equation for the damped quantum oscillator is presented; the Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Weyl-Wigner-Moyal representations of the Lindblad equation are given explicitly. On the basis of these representations it is shown that various master equations for the damped quantum oscillator used in the literature are particular cases of the Lindblad equation and that not all of these equations are satisfying the constraints on quantum mechanical diffusion coefficients. Analytical expressions for the first two moments of coordinate and momentum are obtained by using the characteristic function of the Lindblad master equation. The master equation is transformed into Fokker-Planck equations for quasiprobability distributions and a comparative study is made for the Glauber P representation, the antinormal ordering Q representation, and the Wigner W representation. The density matrix is represented via a generating function, which is obtained by solving a timedependent linear partial differential equation derived from the master equation. Illustrative examples for specific initial conditions of the density matrix are provided. The solution of the master equation in the Weyl-Wigner-Moyal representation is of Gaussian type if the initial form of the Wigner function is taken to be a Gaussian corresponding (for example) to a coherent wavefunction. The damped harmonic oscillator is applied for the description of the charge equilibration mode observed in deep inelastic reactions. For a system consisting of two harmonic oscillators the time dependence of expectation values, Wigner function and Weyl operator, are obtained and discussed. In addition models for the damping of the angular momentum are studied. Using this theory to the quantum tunneling through the nuclear barrier, besides Gamow’s transitions with energy conservation, additional transitions with energy loss are found. The tunneling spectrum is obtained as a function of the barrier characteristics. When this theory is used to the resonant atom-field interaction, new optical equations describing the coupling through the environment of the atomic observables are obtained. With these equations, some characteristics of the laser radiation absorption spectrum and optical bistability are described.
Parametrically driven Kerr nonlinear quantum oscillator plays a central role in quantum optics, superconducting circuits, and in engineered light-matter interactions. For the development of future quantum technologies, it is crucial to understand the behavior of this quantum system under realistic dissipative conditions. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the phase-space dynamics of a dissipative Kerr nonlinear oscillator under different driving regimes and corresponding dissipation channels, with a particular focus on the emergence of nonclassical features in phase space. The aim is also to understand how nonlinearity and different driving mechanisms influence quantum properties such as coherence, nonclassicality, and phase-space structure. The analysis was carried out using the Wigner phase-space formalism and numerical simulations of the Lindblad master equation. The results show that in the case of finite nonlinearity the coherence time is prolonged compared to the harmonic case. In the single photon regime, the interplay between the photon drive and nonlinearity can lead to coherence revivals after which the system relaxes into a squeezed steady state. In the two photon and dissipation regime, the system exhibits parity-protected dynamics, leading to very long coherence times.
Driven nonlinear quantum oscillators are a central platform for quantum technologies, yet their dissipative dynamics are typically described using Lindblad or Caldeira-Leggett master equations derived under assumptions that exclude nonlinearities and driving. Here, we derive a generalized Caldeira-Leggett master equation for driven nonlinear oscillators by retaining the full nonlinear and time-dependent system dynamics in the construction of the dissipator. For position- and momentum-dependent system-bath coupling, the dissipator itself becomes dynamically dressed, generating nonlinear and drive-dependent dissipative channels beyond conventional fixed-dissipator approaches. This produces nonlinear damping together with dissipation-induced corrections to the effective drive. The resulting dissipative dynamics suppress large-amplitude excitations and reduce phase-space fluctuations. For a driven Kerr oscillator, this leads to the suppression of bistability, asymmetric resonance responses, and strongly modified fluctuation distributions. More broadly, our results establish a microscopic framework in which nonlinear dynamics and driving directly reshape the dissipative sector of driven open quantum systems.
Based on the stabilizer formalism underlying Quantum Error Correction (QEC), the design of an original Lindblad master equation for the density operator of a quantum harmonic oscillator is proposed. This Lindblad dynamics stabilizes exactly the finite-energy grid states introduced in 2001 by Gottesman, Kitaev and Preskill for quantum computation. Stabilization results from an exponential Lyapunov function with an explicit lower-bound on the convergence rate. Numerical simulations indicate the potential interest of such autonomous QEC in presence of non-negligible photonlosses.
In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems the damping of the harmonic oscillator is studied. A generalization of the fundamental constraints on quantum mechanical diffusion coefficients which appear in the master equation for the damped quantum oscillator is presented; the Schrödinger and Heisenberg representations of the Lindblad equation are given explicitly. On the basis of these representations it is shown that various master equations for the damped quantum oscillator used in the literature are particular cases of the Lindblad equation and that the majority of these equations are not satisfying the constraints on quantum mechanical diffusion coefficients. Analytical expressions for the first two moments of coordinate and momentum are also obtained by using the characteristic function of the Lindblad master equation. The master equation is transformed into Fokker-Planck equations for quasiprobability distributions. A comparative study is made for the Glauber PPP representation, the antinormal ordering QQQ representation and the Wigner WWW representation. It is proven that the variances for the damped harmonic oscillator found with these representations are the same. By solving the Fokker-Planck equations in the steady state, it is shown that the quasiprobability distributions are two-dimensional Gaussians with widths determined by the diffusion coefficients. The density matrix is represented via a generating function, which is obtained by solving a time-dependent linear partial differential equation derived from the master equation. Illustrative examples for specific initial conditions of the density matrix are provided.