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arXiv:2309.03625 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Positive Hamiltonians cannot give exponential decay of positive observables

Paolo Facchi A, Davide Lonigro

Published Nov 23, 2023• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The survival probability of a quantum system with a finite ground energy is known to decay subexponentially at large times. Here we show that, under the same assumption, the average value of any quantum observable, whenever well-defined, cannot converge exponentially to an extremal value of the spectrum of the observable. Large-time deviations from the exponential decay are therefore a general feature of quantum systems. As a simple application of these results, we show that, when considering an open quantum system whose dynamics is generated by a Hamiltonian with a finite ground energy, a large-time exponential decay of populations is forbidden, whereas coherences may still decay exponentially.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8121/ad0f48

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Abstract The survival probability of a quantum system with a finite ground energy is known to decay subexponentially at large times. Here we show that, under the same assumption, the average value of any quantum observable, whenever well-defined, cannot converge exponentially to an extremal value of the spectrum of the observable. Large-time deviations from the exponential decay are therefore a general feature of quantum systems. As a simple application of these results, we show that, when considering an open quantum system whose dynamics is generated by a Hamiltonian with a finite ground energy, a large-time exponential decay of populations is forbidden, whereas coherences may still decay exponentially.
It is commonly claimed that only Hamiltonians with a spectrum unbounded both above and below can give purely exponential decay. Because such Hamiltonians have no ground state, they are considered unphysical. Here we show that Hamiltonians that are bounded below can give purely exponential decay. This is possible when, instead of looking at the global survival probability, one considers a subsystem only: We show that the reduced state of the subsystem can exhibit a Markovian dynamics, and some (local) observables can decay exponentially. We conclude that purely exponential decay might not be as unphysical as previously thought.
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An effect generated by the nonexponential behavior of the survival amplitude of an unstable state in the long time region is considered. We find that the instantaneous energy of the unstable state for a large class of models of unstable states tends to the minimal energy of the system Emin{\cal E}_{min}Emin​ as t→∞t\rightarrow\inftyt→∞ which is much smaller than the energy of this state for ttt of the order of the lifetime of the considered state. Analyzing the transition time region between exponential and non-exponential form of the survival amplitude we find that the instantaneous energy of the considered unstable state can take large values, much larger than the energy of this state for ttt from the exponential time region. Taking into account results obtained for a model considered, it is hypothesized that this purely quantum mechanical effect may be responsible for the properties of broad resonances such as σσσ meson as well as having astrophysical and cosmological consequences.
We study a quantum-mechanical system, prepared, at t=0, in a model state, that subsequently decays into a sea of other states whose energy levels form a discrete spectrum with given statistical properties. An important quantity is the survival probability P(t), defined as the probability, at time t, to find the system in the original model state. Our main purpose is to analyze the influence of the discreteness and statistical properties of the spectrum on the behavior of P(t). Since P(t) itself is a statistical quantity, we restrict our attention to its ensemble average 〈P(t)〉, which is calculated analytically using random-matrix techniques, within certain approximations discussed in the text. We find, for 〈P(t)〉, an exponential decay, followed by a revival, governed by the two-point structure function of the statistical spectrum, thus giving a nonzero asymptotic value for large t's. The analytic result compares well with a number of computer simulations, over a time range discussed in the text.
We study a class of Friedrichs Hamiltonians, that is, operators describing an excited state coupled to a bath through a rank-one perturbation, in the case where the bath Hamiltonian has purely discrete spectrum. We consider sequences of such Hamiltonians for which the spectral measures associated to the coupling functions by the bath Hamiltonians converge weakly to a limiting measure that is absolutely continuous with a Hölder continuous density near the excited energy. Under this assumption, we show that the survival probability of the excited state decays in an approximately exponential manner on suitable time scales and under favourable conditions, with a decay rate given by Fermi's golden rule for the limiting measure. The error is estimated in terms of the coupling strength and the Lévy distance between the discrete spectral measures and the limiting measure. As an application, we treat a two-level atom coupled to a massless bosonic field confined to a large cavity in the rotating-wave approximation.