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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Quantum dynamics in the partial Wigner picture

Geoff Beck, Alessandro Sergi

Published Sep 13, 2013• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Recently we have shown how the partial Wigner representation of quantum mechanics can be used to study hybrid quantum models where a system with a finitenumber ofenergy levels iscoupled tolinearornonlinear oscillators(Beck and Sergi 2013 Phys. Lett. A 377 1047). The purpose of this work is to provide a detailed derivation of the partially Wigner-transformed quantum equations of motion for nonlinear oscillator subsystems under the action of general polynomial potentials. Such equations can be written in terms of a propagator, which can then be expanded in a power series. The linear terms of the series describe quantum-classical dynamics while the nonlinear terms provide the corrections needed to restore the fully quantum character of the evolution. In thecaseofpolynomialpotentialsandpositiondependentcouplings,thenumber of nonlinear terms is finite and the corrections can be calculated explicitly. In this work we show how to implement numerically the above scheme where, in principle, no assumption about the strength of the coupling must be taken. We illustrate the formalism by studying a two-level system interacting with an asymmetric quartic oscillator. We integrate the quantum dynamics of the total system and provide a comparison with the case of the quantum-classical dynamics of the quartic oscillator. The approach presented here is expected to be effective for studying hybrid quantum circuits in quantum information theoryandforwitnessingthequantum-to-classicaltransitioninnano-oscillators coupled to pseudo-spins.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/46/39/395305

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Recently we have shown how the partial Wigner representation of quantum mechanics can be used to study hybrid quantum models where a system with a finitenumber ofenergy levels iscoupled tolinearornonlinear oscillators(Beck and Sergi 2013 Phys. Lett. A 377 1047). The purpose of this work is to provide a detailed derivation of the partially Wigner-transformed quantum equations of motion for nonlinear oscillator subsystems under the action of general polynomial potentials. Such equations can be written in terms of a propagator, which can then be expanded in a power series. The linear terms of the series describe quantum-classical dynamics while the nonlinear terms provide the corrections needed to restore the fully quantum character of the evolution. In thecaseofpolynomialpotentialsandpositiondependentcouplings,thenumber of nonlinear terms is finite and the corrections can be calculated explicitly. In this work we show how to implement numerically the above scheme where, in principle, no assumption about the strength of the coupling must be taken. We illustrate the formalism by studying a two-level system interacting with an asymmetric quartic oscillator. We integrate the quantum dynamics of the total system and provide a comparison with the case of the quantum-classical dynamics of the quartic oscillator. The approach presented here is expected to be effective for studying hybrid quantum circuits in quantum information theoryandforwitnessingthequantum-to-classicaltransitioninnano-oscillators coupled to pseudo-spins.
Abstract We consider the interaction dynamics of a classical oscillator and a quantum two-level system for different pure-dephasing Hamiltonians of the type H ˆ ( q , p ) = H C ( q , p ) 1 + H I ( q , p ) σ ˆ z . This type of systems represents a severe challenge for popular hybrid quantum–classical descriptions. For example, in the case of the common Ehrenfest model, the classical density evolution is shown to decouple entirely from the pure-dephasing quantum dynamics. We focus on a recently proposed hybrid wave equation that is based on Koopman’s wavefunction description of classical mechanics. This model retains quantum–classical correlations whenever a coupling potential is present. Here, several benchmark problems are considered and the results are compared with those arising from fully quantum dynamics. A good agreement is found for a series of study cases involving harmonic oscillators with linear and quadratic coupling, as well as time-varying coupling parameters. In all these cases the classical evolution coincides exactly with the oscillator dynamics resulting from the fully quantum description. In the special case of time-independent coupling involving a classical oscillator with varying frequency, the quantum Bloch rotation exhibits peculiar features that escape from the hybrid description. In addition, nonlinear corrections to the harmonic Hamiltonian lead to an overall growth of decoherence at long times, which is absent in the fully quantum treatment.
Mixed quantum-classical equations of motion are derived for a quantum subsystem of light (mass m) particles coupled to a classical bath of massive (mass M) particles. The equation of motion follows from a partial Wigner transform over the bath degrees of freedom of the Liouville equation for the full quantum system, followed by an expansion in the small parameter μ=(m/M)1/2 in analogy with the theory of Brownian motion. The resulting mixed quantum-classical Liouville equation accounts for the coupled evolution of the subsystem and bath. The quantum subsystem is represented in an adiabatic (or other) basis and the series solution of the Liouville equation leads to a representation of the dynamics in an ensemble of surface-hopping trajectories. A generalized Pauli master equation for the evolution of the diagonal elements of the density matrix is derived by projection operator methods and its structure is analyzed in terms of surface-hopping trajectories.
The Wigner phase space formulation of quantum mechanics is a complete framework for quantum dynamic calculations that elegantly highlights connections with classical dynamics. In this series of two articles, building upon previous efforts, we derive the full hierarchy of approximate semiclassical (SC) dynamic methods for adiabatic and non-adiabatic problems in Wigner phase space. In Paper I, focusing on adiabatic single surface processes, we derive the well-known double Herman-Kluk (DHK) approximation for real-time correlation functions in Wigner phase space and connect it to the linearized SC (LSC) approximation through a stationary phase approximation. We exploit this relationship to introduce a new hybrid SC method, termed Adiabatic Hybrid Wigner Dynamics (AHWD) that allows for a few important "system" degrees of freedom (dofs) to be treated at the DHK level, while treating the rest of the dofs (the "bath") at the LSC level. AHWD is shown to accurately capture quantum interference effects in models of coupled oscillators and the decoherence of vibrational probability density of a model I2 Morse oscillator coupled to an Ohmic thermal bath. We show that AHWD significantly mitigates the sign problem and employs reduced dimensional prefactors bringing calculations of complex system-bath problems within the reach of SC methods. Paper II focuses on extending this hybrid SC dynamics to nonadiabatic processes.
In this second in a series of four articles we create a mathematical formalism sufficient to represent nontrivial hamiltonian quantum dynamics, including resonances. Some parts of this construction are also mathematically necessary. The specific construction is the transforming of a pair of quantized free oscillators into a resonant system of coupled oscillators by analytic continuation which is performed algebraically by the group of complex symplectic transformations, thereby creating dynamical representations of numerous semi-groups. The quantum free oscillators are the quantum analogue of classical action angle variable solutions for the coupled oscillators and quantum resonances, including Breit-Wigner resonances. Among the exponentially decaying Breit-Wigner resonances represented by Gamow vectors are hamiltonian systems in which energy transfers from one oscillator to the other. There are significant mathematical constraints in order that complex spectra be accommodated in a well defined formalism which represents dynamics, and these may be met by using the commutative real algebra $\C (1,i)$ as the ring of scalars in place of the field of complex numbers. These mathematical constraints compel use of fundamental (spinor) representations rather than UIR's. By including distributional solutions to the Schr{ö}dinger equation, placing us in a rigged Hilbert space, and by using the Hamiltonian as a generator of canonical transformation of the space of states, the Schr{ö}dinger equation is the equation for parallel transport of generalized energy eigenvectors, explicitly establishing the Hamiltonian as the generator of dynamical time translations in this formalism.
In this work we provide a complete model of semiclassical theories by including back-reaction and correlation into the picture. We specially aim at the interaction between light and a two-level atom, and we also illustrate it via the coupling of two harmonic oscillators. Quantum and classical systems are treated on the same grounds via the Wigner-Weyl phase-space correspondence of the quantum theory. We show that this model provides a suitable mixture of the quantum and classical degrees of freedom, including the fact that the evolution transfers nonclassical features to the classical subsystem and nonquantum behavior to the quantum subsystem. In that sense, we can no longer distinguish between classical and quantum variables and we need to talk about a hybrid model.
The statistical properties of systems of coupled quantum-mechanical harmonic oscillators are analyzed. The Hamiltonian for the system is assumed to be an inhomogeneous quadratic form in the creation and annihilation operators, and is allowed to have an explicit time dependence. The relationship to classical theory is emphasized by expressing pure states in terms of the coherent-state vectors, and density operators by means of the PPP representation and an analogous representation involving the Wigner function. The state which evolves from an initially coherent state of the system is found, and equations governing the time evolution of the Wigner function and the weight function for the PPP representation are derived, in differential and integral form, for arbitrary initial states of the system. The results remain valid for couplings which do not preserve the vacuum state, and for cases in which the time dependence of the coupling parameters gives rise to large-scale amplification of the initial field intensities. The analysis is performed by first treating general linear inhomogeneous canonical transformations on the oscillator variables, and then specializing to the case in which these transformations represent the solutions for the Heisenberg operators in terms of their initial values. The results are illustrated within the context of a model of parametric amplification.