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arXiv:2310.09164 · Physical Review A

Adjoint master equation for multitime correlators

Ivan V. Panyukov, Vladislav Yu. Shishkov, E. S. Andrianov

Published May 8, 2024• 1 citation
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Abstract

The quantum regression theorem is a powerful tool for calculating the multitime correlators of operators of open quantum systems whose dynamics can be described in Markovian approximation. However, the scope of the quantum regression theorem is limited by a particular time order of the operators in multitime correlators and does not include out-of-time-ordered correlators. In this work, we obtain an adjoint master equation for multitime correlators that applies to out-of-time-ordered correlators. We show that this equation can be derived for various approaches to the description of the dynamics of open quantum systems, such as the global or local approach. We show that the adjoint master equation for multitime correlators is self-consistent. Namely, the final equation does not depend on how the operators are grouped inside the correlator and it coincides with the quantum regression theorem for the particular time ordering of the operators.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.109.052207

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The quantum regression theorem is a powerful tool for calculating the multitime correlators of operators of open quantum systems whose dynamics can be described in Markovian approximation. However, the scope of the quantum regression theorem is limited by a particular time order of the operators in multitime correlators and does not include out-of-time-ordered correlators. In this work, we obtain an adjoint master equation for multitime correlators that applies to out-of-time-ordered correlators. We show that this equation can be derived for various approaches to the description of the dynamics of open quantum systems, such as the global or local approach. We show that the adjoint master equation for multitime correlators is self-consistent. Namely, the final equation does not depend on how the operators are grouped inside the correlator and it coincides with the quantum regression theorem for the particular time ordering of the operators.
An extremely useful evolution equation that allows systematically calculating the two-time correlation functions (CF's) of system operators for non-Markovian open (dissipative) quantum systems is derived. The derivation is based on perturbative quantum master equation approach, so non-Markovian open quantum system models that are not exactly solvable can use our derived evolution equation to easily obtain their two-time CF's of system operators, valid to second order in the system-environment interaction. Since the form and nature of the Hamiltonian are not specified in our derived evolution equation, our evolution equation is applicable for bosonic and/or fermionic environments and can be applied to a wide range of system-environment models with any factorized (separable) system-environment initial states (pure or mixed). When applied to a general model of a system coupled to a finite-temperature bosonic environment with a system coupling operator L in the system-environment interaction Hamiltonian, the resultant evolution equation is valid for both L = L(†) and L ≠ L(†) cases, in contrast to those evolution equations valid only for L = L(†) case in the literature. The derived equation that generalizes the quantum regression theorem (QRT) to the non-Markovian case will have broad applications in many different branches of physics. We then give conditions on which the QRT holds in the weak system-environment coupling case and apply the derived evolution equation to a problem of a two-level system (atom) coupled to the finite-temperature bosonic environment (electromagnetic fields) with L ≠ L(†).
Beyond the conventional quantum regression theorem, a general formula for non-Markovian correlation functions of arbitrary system operators both in the time- and frequency-domain is given. We approach the problem by transforming the conventional time-non-local master equation into dispersed time-local equations-of-motion. The validity of our approximations is discussed and we find that the non-Markovian terms have to be included for short times. While calculations of the density matrix at short times suffer from the initial value problem, a correlation function has a well defined initial state. The resulting formula for the non-Markovian correlation function has a simple structure and is as convenient in its application as the conventional quantum regression theorem for the Markovian case. For illustrations, we apply our method to investigate the spectrum of the current fluctuations of interacting quantum dots contacted with two electrodes. The corresponding non-Markovian characteristics are demonstrated.
Experiments performed on quantum systems often measure multitime correlation functions. When quantum systems are weakly coupled to their environment, the time evolution of such correlation functions can be reduced to that of the reduced density matrix by the quantum regression theorem (QRT). While no QRT is available for general non-Markovian open quantum systems, we show that for time-independent Hamiltonians and finite memory times τcτ_cτc​, an exact factorization rule exists that relates higher-order multitime correlations to products of lower-order correlations. Consequently, all information needed to reconstruct nnn-time correlations is contained in a temporal volume of O(τcn)\mathcal{O}(τ_c^n)O(τcn​). On the example of quantum dots coupled to phonons, we demonstrate that this factorization makes numerical calculations of multitime correlations extremely efficient and even enables semianalytical solutions in systems where the standard QRT breaks down.
Beyond the conventional quantum regression theorem, a general formula for non-Markovian correlation functions of arbitrary system operators both in the time- and frequency-domain is given. Weapproach the problem by transforming the conventional time-non-local master equation into dispersed time-local equations-of-motion. The validity of our approximations is discussed and we find that the non-Markovian terms have to be included for short times. While calculations of the density matrix at short times suffer from the initial value problem, a correlation function has a well defined initial state. The resulting formula for the non-Markovian correlation function has a simple structure and is as convenient in its application as the conventional quantum regression theorem for the Markovian case. For illustrations, we apply our method to investigate the spectrum of the current fluctuations of interacting quantum dots contacted with two electrodes. The corresponding non- Markovian characteristics are demonstrated.
The quantum regression theorem is one of the central results in open quantum systems and is extensively used for computing multi-point correlation functions. Traditionally it is derived for two-time correlators in the Markovian limit employing the Schr\"odinger picture. In this paper we make use of the Heisenberg picture to derive the quantum regression theorems for multi-time correlation functions, which in the special limit reduce to the well-known two-time regression theorem. For the multi-time correlation function we find that the regression theorem takes the same form as it takes for the two-time correlation function with a mild restriction that one of the times should be greater than all other time variables. Interestingly, the Heisenberg picture also allows us to derive an analog of regression theorem for out-of-time-ordered correlators. We further extend our study for the case of non-Markovian dynamics and report the modifications to the standard quantum regression theorem. We illustrate all of the above results using the paradigmatic dissipative spin-boson model.
While the quantum regression theorem (QRT) is the standard tool for computing multi-time correlation functions in open quantum systems, it relies on system-bath separability and an environment that remains in equilibrium, assumptions that are violated once dynamical correlations develop. Using the projection operator formalism, we derive an extension to the QRT that explicitly incorporates these correlation-induced corrections, enabling us to capture multi-time correlation functions in non-Markovian regimes. We apply this framework to the variational polaron master equation for the spin-boson model in ohmic and super-ohmic regimes, where the polaron transformation mixes system-bath degrees of freedom to produce a non-thermal effective environment. Benchmarking against numerically exact tensor-network simulations, we demonstrate quantitative agreement for single- and two-time observables, including linear-response spectra, even at strong coupling. Our approach broadens the reach of analytic master equations to multi-time observables in strong-coupling and non-Markovian regimes, where environmental memory effects and system-bath correlations are crucial.