Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General
The influence of nonlinear interaction-terms in the spin-boson Hamiltonian for the superohmic case
Andreas Heuer
Abstract
We generalize the conventional spin-boson Hamiltonian by considering additional nonlinear coupling terms between system and heat bath. The equation of motion for the reduced density matrix of the system is calculated in second-order perturbation theory in the tunnelling matrix element and the nonlinear coupling constant. We obtain an explicit expression for the Laplace transform of the function which describes the time evolution of the position of the system. Due to the influence of the nonlinear coupling for temperatures much lower than the Debye temperature a transition from coherent to incoherent dynamics may take place. We fully describe this crossover by our expression.