The irreversible time evolution of a quantum system interacting with a large environmental system can be described by a quantum master equation. When an external field is applied to a quantum system, a non-Markovian mater equation is derived in a rigorous way, where the relaxation terms in the quantum master equation include the effects of the external field. It is shown that, when the external field is a sequence of phase-modulation pulses, the decoherence of the quantum system can be suppressed under certain conditions. To see the effects of phase-modulation pulses, the irreversible time evolutions of qubit and photon systems are investigated in detail.
The irreversible time evolution of a quantum system interacting with a large environmental system can be described by a quantum master equation. When an external field is applied to a quantum system, a non-Markovian mater equation is derived in a rigorous way, where the relaxation terms in the quantum master equation include the effects of the external field. It is shown that, when the external field is a sequence of phase-modulation pulses, the decoherence of the quantum system can be suppressed under certain conditions. To see the effects of phase-modulation pulses, the irreversible time evolutions of qubit and photon systems are investigated in detail.
An irreversible time evolution of a quantum system interacting with a surrounding environment is described by a quantum master equation. When an external field is applied to a quantum system, a non-Markovian master equation is derived in a rigorous way, where the relaxation terms in the quantum master equation include the effect of the external field that is ignored in the conventional treatment. It is shown that when the external field is a sequence of phase-modulation π-pulses, the decoherence of the quantum system can be suppressed. In particular, when the pulse separation is sufficiently short in comparison with the correlation time of the environmental system, dynamical decoupling takes place. To see the effect of the phase-modulation π-pulses, the time evolution of qubit entanglement is investigated in detail.
The precise characterization of dynamics in open quantum systems often presents significant challenges, leading to the introduction of various approximations to simplify a model. One commonly used strategy involves Markovian approximations, assuming a memoryless environment. In this study, such approximations are not used and an analytical dynamical depiction of an open quantum system is provided. The system under consideration is an oscillator that is surrounded by a bath of oscillators. The resulting dynamics are characterized by a second-order complex coefficient linear differential equation, which may be either homogeneous or inhomogeneous. Moreover, distinct dynamical regions emerge, depending on certain parameter values. Notably, the steady-state average excitation number (AEN) of the system shows rapid escalation with increasing non-Markovianity, reflecting the intricacies of real-world dynamics. In cases where there is detuning between the system frequency and the environmental central frequency within a non-Markovian regime, the AEN maintains its initial value for an extended period. Furthermore, the application of pulse control can effectively protect the quantum system from decoherence effects without using approximations. The pulse control can not only prolong the relaxation time of the oscillator, but can also be used to speed up the relaxation process, depending on the specifications of the pulse. By employing a kick pulse, the Mpemba effect can be observed in the non-Markovian regime in a surprisingly super-cooling-like effect.
Based on the experiments [S. Putz et al., Nat. Phys. 10, 720 (2014); Nat. Photonics 11, 36 (2017)] on the hybrid quantum system of a superconducting microwave cavity coupled strongly to an inhomogeneous broadening spin ensemble, we use the exact master equation theory to investigate its non-Markovian decoherence dynamics under external driving fields. In the experiments, the spin ensemble is made of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond. The exact master equation theory generalizes the fluctuation-dissipation relation and depicts in details the transient non-Markovian decoherence, in which the dissipation (relaxation) and fluctuations (noise or dephasing) dynamics is well described and the non-Markovian memory effect can be well characterized. We study the physical picture of the transient non-Markovian decoherence dynamics and explore how the non-Markovian decoherence induced by the inhomogeneous broadening of the spin ensemble is suppressed in the strong-coupling regime. We also show how the spectral hole burning generates localized bound states for the further decoherence suppression. Furthermore, we investigate the two-time correlations to show the relationships between quantum fluctuations and quantum memory.
The conditions under which quantum-classical Liouville dynamics may be reduced to a master equation are investigated. Systems that can be partitioned into a quantum-classical subsystem interacting with a classical bath are considered. Starting with an exact non-Markovian equation for the diagonal elements of the density matrix, an evolution equation for the subsystem density matrix is derived. One contribution to this equation contains the bath average of a memory kernel that accounts for all coherences in the system. It is shown to be a rapidly decaying function, motivating a Markovian approximation on this term in the evolution equation. The resulting subsystem density matrix equation is still non-Markovian due to the fact that bath degrees of freedom have been projected out of the dynamics. Provided the computation of nonequilibrium average values or correlation functions is considered, the non-Markovian character of this equation can be removed by lifting the equation into the full phase space of the system. This leads to a trajectory description of the dynamics where each fictitious trajectory accounts for decoherence due to the bath degrees of freedom. The results are illustrated by computations of the rate constant of a model nonadiabatic chemical reaction.
The theory of open quantum systems represents one of the major developments of quantum mechanics over the last 50 years. Its central object of study is constituted by quantum systems that cannot be regarded as fully isolated, but instead interact with additional degrees of freedom, giving rise to irreversible phenomena such as dissipation and decoherence. The tools provided by this framework are nowadays of paramount importance across many active areas of research, including quantum computation, thermodynamics, metrology and biology. In this thesis, we investigate three main topics within the field. The first contribution concerns the microscopic derivation of the evolution equations, socalled quantum master equations, for open systems which are also subject to external driving fields. Standard techniques developed for time-independent Hamiltonians encounter several difficulties in the time-dependent case, largely restricting their applicability to specific instances, such as periodic or adiabatic drivings. In contrast, a core result of the derivation presented in the thesis is that, when the environment is sufficiently Markovian (essentially, memoryless), the non-adiabatic contributions to the driving field can be neglected in a controlled fashion, yielding an accurate master equation with time-dependent generator, capable of correctly reproducing the open dynamics even for strong drivings. This result is further supported by benchmarks against numerically exact simulations. The second contribution addresses the long-time behavior of general types of (Markovian) quantum master equations, including those of the form introduced above. While this problem has been extensively analyzed in the time-independent setting, virtually no results are known for time-dependent generators. In particular, we establish the foundations of a general theory of relaxation, that is, convergence towards an asymptotic trajectory in the long-time limit, independently of the initial state. The main results include a theorem guaranteeing sufficient conditions for relaxation and the derivation of a rate function governing the convergence to the asymptotic trajectory. The analysis is further extended to a simple non-Markovian case. Moreover, we treat in detail the specific master equation derived in the first part, connecting the aforementioned relaxation property directly to the underlying microscopic dynamics. The third contribution investigates chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effects from the perspective of open quantum systems. Although the majority of theoretical studies aiming to model CISS are based on a coherent description of the spin dynamics, such effects have been observed also for electrons subject to incoherent transport across molecular networks. In this regard, we provide a rigorous ab initio derivation of the microscopic Hamiltonian describing the electronic transport, incorporating electron spin effects and contributions stemming from the nuclear vibrations. Within this result, we critically revise a master equation approach aiming to explain the origin of CISS effects observed in photosynthetic complexes. Taken together, these contributions offer fresh insights and original results on the interplay between driving fields and dissipation, relaxation phenomena, and electronic spin transport in the presence of incoherent dynamics. More broadly, these results provide new theoretical tools with several potential applications in quantum technologies, from modeling of control pulses in noisy environments to quantum reservoir engineering, and contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of quantum effects in biological systems.
The decoherence of entanglement of two-qubit states is investigated by means of the non-Markovian quantum master equation. It is assumed that the decoherence is caused by environmental systems in non-stationary states, which evolve from initial states into equilibrium states. In this case, the non-Markovian nature of the environmental systems is of essential importance. It is shown that the disentanglement time after which there is no qubit entanglement is determined by the non-Markovian effect and the thermal effect of the environmental systems.