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

Coherence and decoherence processes of a harmonic oscillator coupled with finite temperature field: exact eigenbasis solution of Kossakowski-Linblad's equation

Buang Ann Tay

Published Jan 1, 2004• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The eigenvalue problem of Kossakowski-Linblad’s kinetic equation associated with the reduced density matrix of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a thermal bath in equilibrium is solved. The solution gives rise to a complete orthogonal eigenbasis endowed with Hilbert space structure that has a weighted norm. We find that the eigenfunctions at finite temperature can be obtained from the eigenfunction at zero temperature through a hyperbolic rotation on the position variables. This transformation enables the extension of the simple harmonic oscillator density matrix to that of a finite temperature. We further investigate the decay of these extended states under our dissipative kinetic equation. Furthermore, the Hilbert space structure enables the proof of a H-theorem in this system. We apply the eigenbasis expansion of an initial state to analyze decohorence as well as coherence processes. We find that coherence process occurs at a longer time scale compared to decoherence process. The time scales of both processes are estimated with the eigenbasis expansion. In the same way we analyze the evolution of the coherent state. We show that in addition to the ordinary decay time, we found another time scale which is defined by the time when the motion of the peak of the coherent state become comparative to the width of the coherent state. In contrast to the ordinary decay time this new relaxation time depends on the initial value of the momentum of the oscillator. We also find that our eigenbasis is applicable to a class of non-linear interactions, with a slight extension of the form of transport coefficients due to the non-linear interactions.

Related papers

Biorthonormal eigenbasis of a Markovian master equation for the quantum Brownian motion

Buang Ann Tay, Tomio Yamakoshi Petrosky

The solution to a quantum Markovian master equation of a harmonic oscillator weakly coupled to a thermal reservoir is investigated as a non-Hermitian eigenvalue problem in space coordinates. In terms of a pair of quantum action-angle variables, the equation becomes separable and a complete set of biorthogonal eigenfunctions can be constructed. Properties of quantum states, such as the change in the quantum coherence length, damping in the motion, and disappearance of the spatial interference pattern, can then be described as the decay of the nonequilibrium modes in the eigenbasis expansion. It is found that the process of gaining quantum coherence from the environment takes a longer time than the opposite process of losing quantum coherence to the environment. An estimate of the time scales of these processes is obtained.

Journal of Mathematical Physics•Nov 1, 2008•17 citations

Decay Process of Quantum Open System at Finite Temperatures

Xiao Xiao, Yibo Gao

Starting from the formal solution to the Heisenberg equation, we revisit an universal model for a quantum open system with a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a boson bath. The analysis of the decay process for a Fock state and a coherent state demonstrate that this method is very useful in dealing with the problems in decay process of the open system. For finite temperatures, the calculations of the reduced density matrix and the mean excitation number for the open system show that an initial coherent state will evolve into a temperature-dependant coherent state after tracing over the bath variables. Also in short-time limit, a temperature-dependant effective Hamiltonian for the open system characterizes the decay process of the open system.

arXiv:1208.4419•Communications in Theoretical Physics•Aug 1, 2012•1 citation

Damped harmonic oscillator: Pure states of the bath and exact master equations

Andrey Pereverzev

Time evolution of a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a heat bath is compared for three classes of initial states for the bath modes-grand canonical ensemble, number states, and coherent states. It is shown that for a wide class of number states the behavior of the oscillator is similar to the case of the equilibrium bath. If the bath modes are initially in coherent states, then the variances of the oscillator coordinate and momentum, as well as its entanglement to the bath, asymptotically approach the same values as for the oscillator at zero temperature and the average coordinate and momentum show a Brownian-like behavior. We derive an exact master equation for the characteristic function of the oscillator valid for arbitrary factorized initial conditions. In the case of the equilibrium bath this equation reduces to an equation of the Hu-Paz-Zhang type, while for the coherent states bath it leads to an exact stochastic master equation with a multiplicative noise.

arXiv:quant-ph/0306061•Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics•Aug 14, 2003•15 citations

Damping of quantum coherence: The master-equation approach

Craig M. Savage, Daniel F. Walls

We solve the master equation for the coordinate-coordinate damped harmonic oscillator for initial superpositions of coherent states. In the zero-temperature case the solution remains a simple superposition of coherent states. While the underdamped oscillator evolves all initial superpositions into mixtures of coherent states the overdamped oscillator does so selectively. For finite temperatures coherent states are no longer preserved, and we find a decrease in the variance of the off-diagonal coordinate-basis density-matrix elements below the coherent-state value. This variance decreases with increasing bath temperature. In the overdamped case there is negligible associated spreading of the diagonal coordinate-basis density-matrix elements. Thus the coordinate basis is an example of Zurek's pointer basis and the coordinate damped oscillator models the coordinate-basis density-matrix diagonalization which occurs in a coordinate measurement.

Physical Review A•Oct 1, 1985•101 citations

On the relaxation to equilibrium of a quantum oscillator interacting with a radiation field

Pierre-A. Vuillermot

In this article we investigate from the point of view of spectral theory the problem of relaxation to thermodynamical equilibrium of a quantum harmonic oscillator interacting with a radiation field. Our starting point is a system of infinitely many Pauli master equations governing the time evolution of the occupation probabilities of the available quantum states. The system we consider is derived from the evolution equation for the reduced density operator obtained after the initial interaction of the oscillator with the radiation field, the latter acting as a heat bath. We provide a complete spectral analysis of the infinitesimal generator of the equations, showing thereby that it generates an infinite-dimensional system of hyperbolic type. This implies that every global solution to the equations converge exponentially rapidly toward the corresponding Gibbs equilibrium state. We also provide a complete spectral analysis of a linear pencil naturally associated with the Pauli equations. All of our considerations revolve around the notion of compactness, more specifically around the existence of a new compact embedding result involving a space of sequences of Sobolev type into a weighted space of square-integrable summable sequences.

arXiv:2404.11329•Communications in Mathematical Sciences•Jan 1, 2025•1 citation

Pointer states via decoherence in a quantum measurement

Anu Venugopalan

We consider the interaction of a quantum system (spin-$\frac{1}{2})$ with a macroscopic quantum apparatus (harmonic oscillator) which in turn is coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Exact solutions of the Markovian master equation show that the reduced density matrix of the system-apparatus combination decoheres to a statistical mixture where up and down spins eventually correlate with pointer states of the apparatus (harmonic oscillator), with associated probabilities in accordance with quantum principles. For the zero-temperature bath these pointer states turn out to be coherent states of the harmonic oscillator (apparatus) for arbitrary initial states of the apparatus. Further, we see that the decoherence time is inversely proportional to the square of the separation between the two coherent states with which the spins correlate. For a high-temperature bath, pointer states no longer remain coherent states but are Gaussian distributions (generalized coherent states). Spin up and down states of the system now correlate with nearly diagonal distributions in position of these generalized coherent states. The diagonalization in position increases with the temperature of the bath. The off-diagonal elements in spin space decohere over a time scale which goes inversely as the square of the separation between the peaks of the two position distributions that correlate with the spin states. Zurek's earlier approximate result for the decoherence time is consistent with our exact results. Our analysis brings out the importance of looking at a measurementlike scenario where definite correlations are established between the system and apparatus to determine the nature of the pointer basis of the apparatus. Further, our exact results demonstrate in an unambiguous way that the pointer states in this measurement model emerge independent of the initial state of the apparatus.

arXiv:quant-ph/9909005•Physical Review A•Dec 8, 1999•34 citations
The eigenvalue problem of Kossakowski-Linblad’s kinetic equation associated with the reduced density matrix of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a thermal bath in equilibrium is solved. The solution gives rise to a complete orthogonal eigenbasis endowed with Hilbert space structure that has a weighted norm. We find that the eigenfunctions at finite temperature can be obtained from the eigenfunction at zero temperature through a hyperbolic rotation on the position variables. This transformation enables the extension of the simple harmonic oscillator density matrix to that of a finite temperature. We further investigate the decay of these extended states under our dissipative kinetic equation. Furthermore, the Hilbert space structure enables the proof of a H-theorem in this system. We apply the eigenbasis expansion of an initial state to analyze decohorence as well as coherence processes. We find that coherence process occurs at a longer time scale compared to decoherence process. The time scales of both processes are estimated with the eigenbasis expansion. In the same way we analyze the evolution of the coherent state. We show that in addition to the ordinary decay time, we found another time scale which is defined by the time when the motion of the peak of the coherent state become comparative to the width of the coherent state. In contrast to the ordinary decay time this new relaxation time depends on the initial value of the momentum of the oscillator. We also find that our eigenbasis is applicable to a class of non-linear interactions, with a slight extension of the form of transport coefficients due to the non-linear interactions.
The solution to a quantum Markovian master equation of a harmonic oscillator weakly coupled to a thermal reservoir is investigated as a non-Hermitian eigenvalue problem in space coordinates. In terms of a pair of quantum action-angle variables, the equation becomes separable and a complete set of biorthogonal eigenfunctions can be constructed. Properties of quantum states, such as the change in the quantum coherence length, damping in the motion, and disappearance of the spatial interference pattern, can then be described as the decay of the nonequilibrium modes in the eigenbasis expansion. It is found that the process of gaining quantum coherence from the environment takes a longer time than the opposite process of losing quantum coherence to the environment. An estimate of the time scales of these processes is obtained.
Starting from the formal solution to the Heisenberg equation, we revisit an universal model for a quantum open system with a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a boson bath. The analysis of the decay process for a Fock state and a coherent state demonstrate that this method is very useful in dealing with the problems in decay process of the open system. For finite temperatures, the calculations of the reduced density matrix and the mean excitation number for the open system show that an initial coherent state will evolve into a temperature-dependant coherent state after tracing over the bath variables. Also in short-time limit, a temperature-dependant effective Hamiltonian for the open system characterizes the decay process of the open system.
Time evolution of a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a heat bath is compared for three classes of initial states for the bath modes-grand canonical ensemble, number states, and coherent states. It is shown that for a wide class of number states the behavior of the oscillator is similar to the case of the equilibrium bath. If the bath modes are initially in coherent states, then the variances of the oscillator coordinate and momentum, as well as its entanglement to the bath, asymptotically approach the same values as for the oscillator at zero temperature and the average coordinate and momentum show a Brownian-like behavior. We derive an exact master equation for the characteristic function of the oscillator valid for arbitrary factorized initial conditions. In the case of the equilibrium bath this equation reduces to an equation of the Hu-Paz-Zhang type, while for the coherent states bath it leads to an exact stochastic master equation with a multiplicative noise.
We solve the master equation for the coordinate-coordinate damped harmonic oscillator for initial superpositions of coherent states. In the zero-temperature case the solution remains a simple superposition of coherent states. While the underdamped oscillator evolves all initial superpositions into mixtures of coherent states the overdamped oscillator does so selectively. For finite temperatures coherent states are no longer preserved, and we find a decrease in the variance of the off-diagonal coordinate-basis density-matrix elements below the coherent-state value. This variance decreases with increasing bath temperature. In the overdamped case there is negligible associated spreading of the diagonal coordinate-basis density-matrix elements. Thus the coordinate basis is an example of Zurek's pointer basis and the coordinate damped oscillator models the coordinate-basis density-matrix diagonalization which occurs in a coordinate measurement.
In this article we investigate from the point of view of spectral theory the problem of relaxation to thermodynamical equilibrium of a quantum harmonic oscillator interacting with a radiation field. Our starting point is a system of infinitely many Pauli master equations governing the time evolution of the occupation probabilities of the available quantum states. The system we consider is derived from the evolution equation for the reduced density operator obtained after the initial interaction of the oscillator with the radiation field, the latter acting as a heat bath. We provide a complete spectral analysis of the infinitesimal generator of the equations, showing thereby that it generates an infinite-dimensional system of hyperbolic type. This implies that every global solution to the equations converge exponentially rapidly toward the corresponding Gibbs equilibrium state. We also provide a complete spectral analysis of a linear pencil naturally associated with the Pauli equations. All of our considerations revolve around the notion of compactness, more specifically around the existence of a new compact embedding result involving a space of sequences of Sobolev type into a weighted space of square-integrable summable sequences.
We consider the interaction of a quantum system (spin-12)\frac{1}{2})21​) with a macroscopic quantum apparatus (harmonic oscillator) which in turn is coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Exact solutions of the Markovian master equation show that the reduced density matrix of the system-apparatus combination decoheres to a statistical mixture where up and down spins eventually correlate with pointer states of the apparatus (harmonic oscillator), with associated probabilities in accordance with quantum principles. For the zero-temperature bath these pointer states turn out to be coherent states of the harmonic oscillator (apparatus) for arbitrary initial states of the apparatus. Further, we see that the decoherence time is inversely proportional to the square of the separation between the two coherent states with which the spins correlate. For a high-temperature bath, pointer states no longer remain coherent states but are Gaussian distributions (generalized coherent states). Spin up and down states of the system now correlate with nearly diagonal distributions in position of these generalized coherent states. The diagonalization in position increases with the temperature of the bath. The off-diagonal elements in spin space decohere over a time scale which goes inversely as the square of the separation between the peaks of the two position distributions that correlate with the spin states. Zurek's earlier approximate result for the decoherence time is consistent with our exact results. Our analysis brings out the importance of looking at a measurementlike scenario where definite correlations are established between the system and apparatus to determine the nature of the pointer basis of the apparatus. Further, our exact results demonstrate in an unambiguous way that the pointer states in this measurement model emerge independent of the initial state of the apparatus.