The quantum dynamics of pairs of two-level systems immersed in dissipative reservoirs with sub-Ohmic spectral distributions is studied by means of numerically exact path integral Monte Carlo methods. It is shown that this class of reservoirs, relevant for generic properties of strongly non-Markovian environments with possible realizations in solid state structures at cryogenic temperatures, supports bipartite entanglement in broad ranges of parameter space and even for broken symmetries and in the presence of thermal noise. The sensitivity of the creation of entanglement in nonequilibrium on the initial preparations of the reservoir is investigated in detail.
The resonant-level model represents a paradigmatic quantum system which serves as a basis for many other quantum impurity models. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the nonequilibrium transport near a quantum phase transition in a spinless dissipative resonant-level model, extending earlier work [Phys. Rev. Lett 102, 216803 (2009)]. A detailed derivation of a rigorous mapping of our system onto an effective Kondo model is presented. A controlled energy-dependent renormalization-group approach is applied to compute the nonequilibrium current in the presence of a finite bias voltage
V. In the linear-response regime $V\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, the system exhibits as a function of the dissipative strength a localized-delocalized quantum transition of the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) type. We address fundamental issues of the nonequilibrium transport near the quantum phase transition: Does the bias voltage play the same role as temperature to smear out the transition? What is the scaling of the nonequilibrium conductance near the transition? At finite temperatures, we show that the conductance follows the equilibrium scaling for
V<T, while it obeys a distinct nonequilibrium profile for
V>T. We furthermore provide different signatures of the transition in the finite-frequency current noise and ac conductance via a recently developed functional renormalization group (FRG) approach. The generalization of our analysis to nonequilibrium transport through a resonant level coupled to two chiral Luttinger liquid leads, generated by fractional quantum Hall edge states, is discussed. Our work on the dissipative resonant level has direct relevance to experiments on a quantum dot coupled to a resistive environment, such as H. Mebrahtu et al., [Nature (London) 488, 61 (2012)].
The nonequilibrium dynamics of a gas of cold atoms in which Rydberg states are off-resonantly excited is studied in the presence of noise. The interplay between interaction and off-resonant excitation leads to an initial dynamics where aggregates of excited Rydberg atoms slowly nucleate and grow, eventually reaching long-lived metastable arrangements which then relax further on much longer time scales. This growth dynamics is governed by an effective Master equation which permits a transparent and largely analytical understanding of the underlying physics. By means of extensive numerical simulations we study the many-body dynamics and the correlations of the resulting nonequilibrium states in various dimensions. Our results provide insight into the dynamical richness of strongly interacting Rydberg gases in noisy environments, and highlight the usefulness of these kinds of systems for the exploration of soft-matter-type collective behavior.