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arXiv:1908.11202 · Physical Review A

Quantum master equations for a system interacting with a quantum gas in the low-density limit and for the semiclassical collision model

Sergey N. Filippov, Georgii Semin, Alexander Nikolaevich Pechen

Published Jan 16, 2020• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A quantum system interacting with a dilute gas experiences irreversible dynamics. The corresponding master equation can be derived within two different approaches: The fully quantum description in the low-density limit and the semiclassical collision model, where the motion of gas particles is classical whereas their internal degrees of freedom are quantum. The two approaches have been extensively studied in the literature, but their predictions have not been compared. This is mainly due to the fact that the low-density limit was extensively studied for mathematical physics purposes, whereas the collision models have been essentially developed for quantum information tasks such as a tractable description of the open quantum dynamics. Here we develop and compare both approaches for a spin system interacting with a gas of spin particles. Using some approximations, we explicitly find the corresponding master equations including the Lamb shifts and the dissipators. The low-density limit in the Born approximation for fast particles is shown to be equivalent to the semiclassical collision model in the stroboscopic approximation. We reveal that both approaches give exactly the same master equation if the gas temperature is high enough. This allows to interchangeably use complicated calculations in the low-density limit and rather simple calculations in the collision model.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.101.012114

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A quantum system interacting with a dilute gas experiences irreversible dynamics. The corresponding master equation can be derived within two different approaches: The fully quantum description in the low-density limit and the semiclassical collision model, where the motion of gas particles is classical whereas their internal degrees of freedom are quantum. The two approaches have been extensively studied in the literature, but their predictions have not been compared. This is mainly due to the fact that the low-density limit was extensively studied for mathematical physics purposes, whereas the collision models have been essentially developed for quantum information tasks such as a tractable description of the open quantum dynamics. Here we develop and compare both approaches for a spin system interacting with a gas of spin particles. Using some approximations, we explicitly find the corresponding master equations including the Lamb shifts and the dissipators. The low-density limit in the Born approximation for fast particles is shown to be equivalent to the semiclassical collision model in the stroboscopic approximation. We reveal that both approaches give exactly the same master equation if the gas temperature is high enough. This allows to interchangeably use complicated calculations in the low-density limit and rather simple calculations in the collision model.
The propagation of a fast particle in a low-density gas at thermal equilibrium is studied in the context of quantum mechanics. A quantum master equation in the Redfield form governing the reduced density matrix of the particle is derived explicitly from first principles. Under some approximations, this equation reduces to the linear Boltzmann equation. The issue of the positivity of the time evolution is also discussed by means of a Lindblad form. The Born and Markov assumptions underlying these equations, as well as other approximations regarding the bath correlation function, are discussed in detail. Furthermore, all these master equations are shown to be equivalent with each other if the density matrix of the particle is diagonal in the momentum basis, or if the collision rate is independent of the particle momentum.
Quantum thermodynamics with open systems is often based on the quantum optical weak-coupling master equation or on operational repeated interaction models, whereas early works on thermalisation and on decoherence theory were mostly concerned with the kinetics of gas collisions. Here we formulate a master equation for the dynamics of a quantum system under inelastic scattering with a dilute thermal gas in three dimensions, comprised of ancilla particles that also possess internal degrees of freedom. We show thermodynamic consistency when the gas is at thermal equilibrium, irrespective of whether or not the ancillas are in resonance with the system. In contrast, when the internal and the motional state of the gas are thermalised to different temperatures, the gas acts not as two distinct heat baths, but as a structured non-equilibrium reservoir that can generate useful energy through uncontrolled collisions.
The white noise approach to the investigation of the dynamics of a quantum particle interacting with a dilute and in general non-equilibrium gaseous environment in the low density limit is outlined. The low density limit is the kinetic Markovian regime when only pair collisions (i.e., collisions of the test particle with one particle of the gas at one time moment) contribute to the dynamics. In the white noise approach one first proves that the appropriate operators describing the gas converge in the sense of appropriate matrix elements to certain operators of quantum white noise. Then these white noise operators are used to derive quantum white noise and quantum stochastic equations describing the approximate dynamics of the total system consisting of the particle and the gas. The derivation is given ab initio, starting from the exact microscopic quantum dynamics. The limiting dynamics is described by a quantum stochastic equation driven by a quantum Poisson process. This equation then applied to the derivation of quantum Langevin equation and linear Boltzmann equation for the reduced density matrix of the test particle. The first part of the paper describes the approach which was developed by L. Accardi, I.V. Volovich and the author and uses the Fock-antiFock (or GNS) representation for the CCR algebra of the gas. The second part presents the approach to the derivation of the limiting equations directly in terms of the correlation functions, without use of the Fock-antiFock representation. This approach simplifies the derivation and allows to express the strength of the quantum number process directly in terms of the one-particle SSS-matrix.
We address the microscopic derivation of a quantum master equation in Lindblad form for the dynamics of a massive test particle with internal degrees of freedom, interacting through collisions with a background ideal gas. When either internal or center-of-mass degrees of freedom can be treated classically, previously established equations are obtained as special cases. If in an interferometric setup the internal degrees of freedom are not detected at the output, the equation can be recast in the form of a generalized Lindblad structure, which describes non-Markovian effects. The effect of internal degrees of freedom on center-of-mass decoherence is considered in this framework.
In recent years, quantum collision models, sometimes dubbed repeated interaction models, have gained much attention due to their simplicity and their capacity to convey ideas without resorting to technical complications typical of many approaches and techniques used in the field of open quantum systems. In this tutorial, we show how to use these models, highlighting their strengths and some technical subtleties often overlooked in the literature. We do this by deriving the Markovian master equation and comparing the standard collisional derivation with the standard microscopic one. We then use the collision model to derive the master equation of a two-level system interacting with either a bosonic or fermionic bath to give the reader a flavour of the real use of the model.
The theory of quantum Brownian motion describes the properties of a large class of open quantum systems. Nonetheless, its description in terms of a Born-Markov master equation, widely used in the literature, is known to violate the positivity of the density operator at very low temperatures. We study an extension of existing models, leading to an equation in the Lindblad form, which is free of this problem. We study the dynamics of the model, including the detailed properties of its stationary solution, for both constant and position-dependent coupling of the Brownian particle to the bath, focusing in particular on the correlations and the squeezing of the probability distribution induced by the environment.