Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2008.11747 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Generic transport formula for a system driven by Markovian reservoirs

Tony Jin, Michele Filippone, Thierry Giamarchi

Published Nov 25, 2020• 43 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present a generic, compact formula for the current flowing in interacting and noninteracting systems which are driven out of equilibrium by biased reservoirs described by Lindblad jump operators. We show that, in the limit of high temperature and chemical potential, our formula is equivalent to the well-known Meir-Wingreen formula, which describes the current flowing through a system connected to fermionic baths, therefore bridging the gap between the two formalisms. Our formulation gives a systematic way to address the transport properties of correlated systems strongly driven out of equilibrium. As an illustration, we provide explicit calculations of the current in three cases : (i) a single-site impurity, (ii) a free-fermionic chain, and (iii) a fermionic chain with loss and gain terms along the chain. In this last case, we find that the current across the system has the same behavior for loss or gain terms and depends on the loss/gain rate in a nonmonotonic way.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.102.205131

Related papers

Non-equilibrium evolution of quantum systems connected to multiple baths

Jinshan Wu

In this thesis we develop a systematic formalism that allows the calculation of transport properties for small quantum systems coupled to multiple baths with different temperatures and/or chemical potentials. Our approach is based on a generalization of the projector operator technique, previously used to study the evolution towards equilibrium of systems weakly coupled to a single bath. Applying this technique to a system weakly coupled to multiple baths, we find a dynamical equation for the reduced density matrix of the system (the reduced density matrix is obtained by tracing out from the total density matrix the baths’ degrees of freedom). Integration of this dynamical equation gives the time evolution of the biased system. After a time interval long enough compared to the characteristic time-scales of the problem, the system arrives to a non-equilibrium steady-state. The density matrix in this non-equilibrium steady state can also be calculated directly, avoiding the time-integration of the dynamical equation. In the second part of the thesis we study non-equilibrium steady states and heat transport through short spin chains coupled to two thermal baths with different temperature. Two new definitions for the local temperature in nonequilibrium are proposed, based on local spin and energy at different sites. The definition based on the local energy seems to be more reliable. We find that for small biases, the heat and spin currents increase proportionally to the bias, however non-linear behavior is observed for large biases. The temperature profile of the chain depends strongly on the parameters of the system.

•Jan 1, 2010•0 citations

Analytic expressions for the steady-state current with finite extended reservoirs

Michael P. Zwolak

Open-system simulations of quantum transport provide a platform for the study of true steady states, Floquet states, and the role of temperature, time dynamics, and fluctuations, among other physical processes. They are rapidly gaining traction, especially techniques that revolve around "extended reservoirs," a collection of a finite number of degrees of freedom with relaxation that maintains a bias or temperature gradient, and have appeared under various guises (e.g., the extended or mesoscopic reservoir, auxiliary master equation, and driven Liouville-von Neumann approaches). Yet, there are still a number of open questions regarding the behavior and convergence of these techniques. Here, we derive general analytical solutions, and associated asymptotic analyses, for the steady-state current driven by finite reservoirs with proportional coupling to the system/junction. In doing so, we present a simplified and unified derivation of the non-interacting and many-body steady-state currents through arbitrary junctions, including outside of proportional coupling. We conjecture that the analytic solution for proportional coupling is the most general of its form for isomodal relaxation (i.e., relaxing proportional coupling will remove the ability to find compact, general analytical expressions for finite reservoirs). These results should be of broad utility in diagnosing the behavior and implementation of extended reservoir and related approaches, including the convergence to the Landauer limit (for non-interacting systems) and the Meir-Wingreen formula (for many-body systems).

arXiv:2009.04472•The Journal of Chemical Physics•Dec 8, 2020•13 citations

Quantum transport between finite reservoirs

Giulio Amato, Heinz‐Peter Breuer, Sandro Wimberger +2 more

When driven by a potential bias between two finite reservoirs, the particle current across a quantum system evolves from an initial loading through a coherent, followed by a metastable phase, and ultimately fades away upon equilibration. We formulate a theory which fully accounts for the associated, distinct time scales, and identifies the parameter dependence of the decay rate which ultimately controls the convergence towards equilibrium. Our formalism guarantees total particle number conservation and fundamental consistency between macroscopic and internal currents flowing in the system. We furthermore establish a clear imprint of the fermionic or bosonic particle character on the resulting conductance.

arXiv:2002.01845•Feb 5, 2020•0 citations

Transport through a correlated interface: Auxiliary master equation approach

Irakli Titvinidze, Antonius Dorda, Wolfgang von der Linden +1 more

We present improvements of a recently introduced numerical method [E. Arrigoni et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 086403 (2013)] to compute steady-state properties of strongly correlated electronic systems out of equilibrium. The method can be considered as a nonequilibrium generalization of exact diagonalization based dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The key modification for the nonequilibrium situation consists in addressing the DMFT impurity problem within an auxiliary system consisting of the correlated impurity, ${N}_{b}$ uncorrelated bath sites, and two Markovian environments (sink and reservoir). Algorithmic improvements in the impurity solver allow to treat efficiently larger values of ${N}_{b}$ than previously in DMFT. This increases the accuracy of the results and is crucial for a correct description of the physical behavior of the system in the relevant parameter range including a semiquantitative description of the Kondo regime. To illustrate the approach, we consider a monoatomic layer of correlated orbitals, described by the single-band Hubbard model, attached to two metallic leads. The nonequilibrium situation is driven by a bias voltage applied to the leads. For this system, we investigate the spectral function and the steady-state current-voltage characteristics in the weakly as well as in the strongly interacting limit. In particular, we investigate the nonequilibrium behavior of quasiparticle excitations within the Mott gap of the correlated layer. We find for low-bias voltage Kondo-type behavior in the vicinity of the insulating phase. In particular, we observe a splitting of the Kondo resonance as a function of the bias voltage.

arXiv:1508.02953•Physical Review B•Dec 21, 2015•24 citations

Current in coherent quantum systems connected to mesoscopic Fermi reservoirs

Shigeru Ajisaka, Felipe Barra, Carlos Mejía-Monasterio +1 more

We study particle current in a recently proposed model for coherent quantum transport. In this model a system connected to mesoscopic Fermi reservoirs (meso-reservoir) is driven out of equilibrium by the action of super reservoirs thermalized to prescribed temperatures and chemical potentials by a simple dissipative mechanism described by the Lindblad equation. We compare exact (numerical) results with theoretical expectations based on the Landauer formula

arXiv:1212.6369•Physica Scripta•Oct 19, 2012•7 citations

Derivation of Oguri's linear conductance formula for interacting fermions within the Keldysh formalism

Jan Heyder, F. Bauer, Dennis H. Schimmel +1 more

We present a Keldysh-based derivation of a formula, previously obtained by Oguri using the Matsubara formalism, for the linear conductance through a central, interacting region coupled to noninteracting fermionic leads. Our starting point is the well-known Meir-Wingreen formula for the current, whose derivative with respect to the source-drain voltage yields the conductance. We perform this derivative analytically by exploiting an exact flow equation from the functional renormalization group, which expresses the flow with respect to voltage of the self-energy in terms of the two-particle vertex. This yields a Keldysh-based formulation of Oguri's formula for the linear conductance, which facilitates applying it in the context of approximation schemes formulated in the Keldysh formalism. (Generalizing our approach to the nonlinear conductance is straightforward, but not pursued here.) We illustrate our linear conductance formula within the context of a model that has previously been shown to capture the essential physics of a quantum point contact in the regime of the 0.7 anomaly. The model involves a tight-binding chain with a one-dimensional potential barrier and onsite interactions, which we treat using second-order perturbation theory. We show that numerical costs can be reduced significantly by using a nonuniform lattice spacing, chosen such that the occurrence of artificial bound states close to the upper band edge is avoided.

arXiv:1704.05751•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Sep 21, 2017•3 citations
We present a generic, compact formula for the current flowing in interacting and noninteracting systems which are driven out of equilibrium by biased reservoirs described by Lindblad jump operators. We show that, in the limit of high temperature and chemical potential, our formula is equivalent to the well-known Meir-Wingreen formula, which describes the current flowing through a system connected to fermionic baths, therefore bridging the gap between the two formalisms. Our formulation gives a systematic way to address the transport properties of correlated systems strongly driven out of equilibrium. As an illustration, we provide explicit calculations of the current in three cases : (i) a single-site impurity, (ii) a free-fermionic chain, and (iii) a fermionic chain with loss and gain terms along the chain. In this last case, we find that the current across the system has the same behavior for loss or gain terms and depends on the loss/gain rate in a nonmonotonic way.
In this thesis we develop a systematic formalism that allows the calculation of transport properties for small quantum systems coupled to multiple baths with different temperatures and/or chemical potentials. Our approach is based on a generalization of the projector operator technique, previously used to study the evolution towards equilibrium of systems weakly coupled to a single bath. Applying this technique to a system weakly coupled to multiple baths, we find a dynamical equation for the reduced density matrix of the system (the reduced density matrix is obtained by tracing out from the total density matrix the baths’ degrees of freedom). Integration of this dynamical equation gives the time evolution of the biased system. After a time interval long enough compared to the characteristic time-scales of the problem, the system arrives to a non-equilibrium steady-state. The density matrix in this non-equilibrium steady state can also be calculated directly, avoiding the time-integration of the dynamical equation. In the second part of the thesis we study non-equilibrium steady states and heat transport through short spin chains coupled to two thermal baths with different temperature. Two new definitions for the local temperature in nonequilibrium are proposed, based on local spin and energy at different sites. The definition based on the local energy seems to be more reliable. We find that for small biases, the heat and spin currents increase proportionally to the bias, however non-linear behavior is observed for large biases. The temperature profile of the chain depends strongly on the parameters of the system.
Open-system simulations of quantum transport provide a platform for the study of true steady states, Floquet states, and the role of temperature, time dynamics, and fluctuations, among other physical processes. They are rapidly gaining traction, especially techniques that revolve around "extended reservoirs," a collection of a finite number of degrees of freedom with relaxation that maintains a bias or temperature gradient, and have appeared under various guises (e.g., the extended or mesoscopic reservoir, auxiliary master equation, and driven Liouville-von Neumann approaches). Yet, there are still a number of open questions regarding the behavior and convergence of these techniques. Here, we derive general analytical solutions, and associated asymptotic analyses, for the steady-state current driven by finite reservoirs with proportional coupling to the system/junction. In doing so, we present a simplified and unified derivation of the non-interacting and many-body steady-state currents through arbitrary junctions, including outside of proportional coupling. We conjecture that the analytic solution for proportional coupling is the most general of its form for isomodal relaxation (i.e., relaxing proportional coupling will remove the ability to find compact, general analytical expressions for finite reservoirs). These results should be of broad utility in diagnosing the behavior and implementation of extended reservoir and related approaches, including the convergence to the Landauer limit (for non-interacting systems) and the Meir-Wingreen formula (for many-body systems).
When driven by a potential bias between two finite reservoirs, the particle current across a quantum system evolves from an initial loading through a coherent, followed by a metastable phase, and ultimately fades away upon equilibration. We formulate a theory which fully accounts for the associated, distinct time scales, and identifies the parameter dependence of the decay rate which ultimately controls the convergence towards equilibrium. Our formalism guarantees total particle number conservation and fundamental consistency between macroscopic and internal currents flowing in the system. We furthermore establish a clear imprint of the fermionic or bosonic particle character on the resulting conductance.
We present improvements of a recently introduced numerical method [E. Arrigoni et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 086403 (2013)] to compute steady-state properties of strongly correlated electronic systems out of equilibrium. The method can be considered as a nonequilibrium generalization of exact diagonalization based dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The key modification for the nonequilibrium situation consists in addressing the DMFT impurity problem within an auxiliary system consisting of the correlated impurity, Nb{N}_{b}Nb​ uncorrelated bath sites, and two Markovian environments (sink and reservoir). Algorithmic improvements in the impurity solver allow to treat efficiently larger values of Nb{N}_{b}Nb​ than previously in DMFT. This increases the accuracy of the results and is crucial for a correct description of the physical behavior of the system in the relevant parameter range including a semiquantitative description of the Kondo regime. To illustrate the approach, we consider a monoatomic layer of correlated orbitals, described by the single-band Hubbard model, attached to two metallic leads. The nonequilibrium situation is driven by a bias voltage applied to the leads. For this system, we investigate the spectral function and the steady-state current-voltage characteristics in the weakly as well as in the strongly interacting limit. In particular, we investigate the nonequilibrium behavior of quasiparticle excitations within the Mott gap of the correlated layer. We find for low-bias voltage Kondo-type behavior in the vicinity of the insulating phase. In particular, we observe a splitting of the Kondo resonance as a function of the bias voltage.
We present a Keldysh-based derivation of a formula, previously obtained by Oguri using the Matsubara formalism, for the linear conductance through a central, interacting region coupled to noninteracting fermionic leads. Our starting point is the well-known Meir-Wingreen formula for the current, whose derivative with respect to the source-drain voltage yields the conductance. We perform this derivative analytically by exploiting an exact flow equation from the functional renormalization group, which expresses the flow with respect to voltage of the self-energy in terms of the two-particle vertex. This yields a Keldysh-based formulation of Oguri's formula for the linear conductance, which facilitates applying it in the context of approximation schemes formulated in the Keldysh formalism. (Generalizing our approach to the nonlinear conductance is straightforward, but not pursued here.) We illustrate our linear conductance formula within the context of a model that has previously been shown to capture the essential physics of a quantum point contact in the regime of the 0.7 anomaly. The model involves a tight-binding chain with a one-dimensional potential barrier and onsite interactions, which we treat using second-order perturbation theory. We show that numerical costs can be reduced significantly by using a nonuniform lattice spacing, chosen such that the occurrence of artificial bound states close to the upper band edge is avoided.