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Physica Scripta

Stochastic wave-function unravelling of the generalized Lindblad equation using correlated states

Mervlyn Moodley, S Paul, T Nsio Nzundu

Published Mar 7, 2012• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We perform a stochastic wave-function unravelling of the generalized Lindblad master equation using correlated states, a combination of the system state vectors and the environment population. The time-convolutionless projection operator method using correlated projection superoperators is applied to a two-state system, a qubit, that is coupled to an environment consisting of two energy bands which are both populated. These results are compared to the data obtained from Monte Carlo wave-function simulations based on the unravelling of the master equation. We also show a typical quantum trajectory and the average time evolution of the state vector on the Bloch sphere.

DOI
10.1088/0031-8949/85/04/045002

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We perform a stochastic wave-function unravelling of the generalized Lindblad master equation using correlated states, a combination of the system state vectors and the environment population. The time-convolutionless projection operator method using correlated projection superoperators is applied to a two-state system, a qubit, that is coupled to an environment consisting of two energy bands which are both populated. These results are compared to the data obtained from Monte Carlo wave-function simulations based on the unravelling of the master equation. We also show a typical quantum trajectory and the average time evolution of the state vector on the Bloch sphere.
Recently a generalized master equation was derived that extends the Lindblad theory to highly non-Markovian quantum processes [H.-P. Breuer, Phys. Rev. A 75, 022103 (2007)]. We perform a stochastic unraveling of this master equation by considering nnn random state vectors that satisfy the corresponding stochastic differential equation for a piecewise deterministic process. As an application we consider a two-state system randomly coupled to an environment consisting of two energy bands with finite number of levels. Our numerical results are compared to results obtained from the time-convolutionless projection operator method using correlated projection superoperators and the exact solution of the Schr\"odinger equation for this system.
A generalization of the stochastic wave-function method to quantum master equations which are not in Lindblad form is developed. The proposed stochastic unraveling is based on a description of the reduced system in a doubled Hilbert space and it is shown that this method is capable of simulating quantum master equations with negative transition rates. Non-Markovian effects in the reduced systems dynamics can be treated within this approach by employing the time-convolutionless projection operator technique. This ansatz yields a systematic perturbative expansion of the reduced systems dynamics in the coupling strength. Several examples such as the damped Jaynes-Cummings model and the spontaneous decay of a two-level system into a photonic band gap are discussed. The power as well as the limitations of the method are demonstrated.
For the efficient simulation of open quantum systems, we often use quantum jump trajectories given by pure states that evolve stochastically to unravel the dynamics of the underlying master equation. In the Markovian regime, when the dynamics is described by a Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad (GKSL) master equation, this procedure is known as Monte Carlo wave function approach. However, beyond ultraweak system-bath coupling, the dynamics of the system is not described by an equation of GKSL type, but rather by the Redfield equation, which can be brought into pseudo-Lindblad form. Here, negative dissipation strengths prohibit the conventional approach. To overcome this problem, we propose a pseudo-Lindblad quantum trajectory (PLQT) unraveling. It does not require an effective extension of the state space, like other approaches, except for the addition of a single classical bit. We test the PLQT for the eternal non-Markovian master equation for a single qubit and an interacting Fermi-Hubbard chain coupled to a thermal bath and discuss its computational effort compared to solving the full master equation.
We develop an extension of the Monte Carlo wave function approach that unambiguously identifies dynamical entanglement in general composite, open systems. Our algorithm performs tangential projections onto the set of separable states, leading to classically correlated quantum trajectories. By comparing this restricted evolution with the unrestricted one, we can characterize the entangling capabilities of quantum channels without making use of input-output relations. Moreover, applying this method is equivalent to solving the nonlinear master equation in Lindblad form introduced in \cite{PAH24} for two-qubit systems. We here extend these equations to multipartite systems of qudits, describing non-entangling dynamics in terms of a stochastic differential equation. We identify the impact of dynamical entanglement in open systems by applying our approach to several correlated decay processes. Therefore, our methodology provides a complete and ready-to-use framework to characterize dynamical quantum correlations caused by arbitrary open-system processes.
We discuss mapping the Bloch-Redfield master equation to Lindblad form and then unraveling the resulting evolution into a stochastic Schr\"odinger equation according to the quantum-jump method. We give two approximations under which this mapping is valid. This approach enables us to study solid-state systems of much larger sizes than is possible with the standard Bloch-Redfield master equation, while still providing a systematic method for obtaining the jump operators and corresponding rates. We also show how the stochastic unraveling of the Bloch-Redfield equations becomes the kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm in the secular approximation when the system-bath-coupling operators are given by tunneling operators between system eigenstates. The stochastic unraveling is compared to the conventional Bloch-Redfield approach with the superconducting single-electron transistor (SSET) as an example.
It is well known that the state operator of an open quantum system can be generically represented as the solution of a time-local equation — a quantum master equation. Unraveling in quantum trajectories offers a picture of open system dynamics dual to solving master equations. In the unraveling picture, physical indicators are computed as Monte Carlo averages over a stochastic process valued in the Hilbert space of the system. This approach is particularly adapted to simulate systems in large Hilbert spaces. We show that the dynamics of an open quantum system generically admits an unraveling in the Hilbert space of the system described by a Markov process generated by ordinary stochastic differential equations for which rigorous concentration estimates are available. The unraveling can be equivalently formulated in terms of norm-preserving state vectors or in terms of linear “ostensible” processes trace preserving only on average. We illustrate the results in the case of a two level system in a simple boson environment. Next, we derive the state-of-the-art form of the Diósi-Gisin-Strunz Gaussian random ostensible state equation in the context of a model problem. This equation provides an exact unraveling of open systems in Gaussian environments. We compare and contrast the two unravelings and their potential for applications to quantum error mitigation.