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

The Journal of Chemical Physics

Beyond linear response: Line shapes for coupled spins or oscillators via direct calculation of dissipated power

Ronnie Kosloff, Mark A. Ratner

Published Mar 15, 1984• 40 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Absorption spectra are calculated for four model systems using two different methods for the calculation: The first is the standard linear response technique, while the second involves direct calculation of the energy dissipated in the sample interacting with the applied field, thus corresponding exactly to what is in fact measured experimentally. This latter technique, which we call the direct method, agrees with a linear response (as it must) for weakly applied fields for which the first-order perturbation analysis underlying linear response is in fact valid. For cases in which the system/field interaction is stronger, the linear approximation becomes poor, and the direct method, which includes the field-induced dynamics and in itself contains no approximations, is far better. The four systems considered consist of either single or coupled pairs of harmonic oscillators or two-level systems (spins) each in a thermal bath and coupled to the field by a displacement coupling. For both linear-response and direct calculations the system/field dynamics is solved exactly and the system/bath dynamics treated using a semigroup technique. For the harmonic oscillators, for which the population in any single excited state can never become large, the nonlinear effects (those present in the direct but not in the linear response) are quite minor. For the two-level/spin/systems, however, substantial corrections to the linear-response result are found in the direct calculation. These include power (or saturation) broadening and the appearance, when the two spins are coupled strongly to each other and one is coupled strongly to the field, of a new line at the averaged frequency of the two spins. For even stronger coupling, the line shape becomes very complex (corresponding to the full 15D algebra of the two spins plus the field), exhibiting several peaks and Fano antiresonances. The direct method, which is based on work of Lebowitz, seems to offer substantial advantages for the analysis of systems in which the applied field interactions are strong: This situation, common in microwave and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, is also relevant to high-energy laser studies.

DOI
10.1063/1.446987

Related papers

The Spin–Boson Model

Abraham Nitzan

In a generic quantum mechanical description of a molecule interacting with its thermal environment, the molecule is represented as a few level system (in the simplest description just two, for example, ground and excited states) and the environment is often modeled as a bath of harmonic oscillators. The resulting theoretical framework is known as the spin–boson model, a term that seems to have emerged in the Kondo problem literature (which deals with the behavior of magnetic impurities in metals) during the 1960s, but is now used in a much broader context. Indeed, it has become one of the central models of theoretical physics, with applications in physics, chemistry, and biology that range far beyond the subject of this book. Transitions between molecular electronic states coupled to nuclear vibrations, environmental phonons, and photon modes of the radiation field fall within this class of problems. The present chapter discusses this model and some of its mathematical implications. The reader may note that some of the subjects discussed in Chapter 9 are reiterated here in this more general framework. In Sections 2.2 and 2.9 we have discussed the dynamics of the two-level system and of the harmonic oscillator, respectively. These exactly soluble models are often used as prototypes of important classes of physical system. The harmonic oscillator is an exact model for a mode of the radiation field and provides good starting points for describing nuclear motions in molecules and in solid environments. It can also describe the short-time dynamics of liquid environments via the instantaneous normal mode approach. In fact, many linear response treatments in both classical and quantum dynamics lead to harmonic oscillator models: Linear response implies that forces responsible for the return of a system to equilibrium depend linearly on the deviation from equilibrium—a harmonic oscillator property! We will see a specific example of this phenomenology in our discussion of dielectric response in Section 16.9.

Oxford University Press eBooks•Apr 6, 2006•0 citations

A unified stochastic formulation of dissipative quantum dynamics. II. Beyond linear response of spin baths

Chang‐Yu Hsieh, Jianshu Cao

We use the “generalized hierarchical equation of motion” proposed in Paper I [C.-Y. Hsieh and J. Cao, J. Chem. Phys. 148, 014103 (2018)] to study decoherence in a system coupled to a spin bath. The present methodology allows a systematic incorporation of higher-order anharmonic effects of the bath in dynamical calculations. We investigate the leading order corrections to the linear response approximations for spin bath models. Two kinds of spin-based environments are considered: (1) a bath of spins discretized from a continuous spectral density and (2) a bath of localized nuclear or electron spins. The main difference resides with how the bath frequency and the system-bath coupling parameters are distributed in an environment. When discretized from a continuous spectral density, the system-bath coupling typically scales as ∼1/NB where NB is the number of bath spins. This scaling suppresses the non-Gaussian characteristics of the spin bath and justifies the linear response approximations in the thermodynamic limit. For the nuclear/electron spin bath models, system-bath couplings are directly deduced from spin-spin interactions and do not necessarily obey the 1/NB scaling. It is not always possible to justify the linear response approximations in this case. Furthermore, if the spin-spin Hamiltonian is highly symmetrical, there exist additional constraints that generate highly non-Markovian and persistent dynamics that is beyond the linear response treatments.

arXiv:1701.05713•The Journal of Chemical Physics•Jan 2, 2018•68 citations

A unified stochastic formulation of dissipative quantum dynamics. II. Beyond linear response of spin baths

Chang‐Yu Hsieh, Jianshu Cao

We use the "generalized hierarchical equation of motion" proposed in Paper I [C.-Y. Hsieh and J. Cao, J. Chem. Phys. 148, 014103 (2018)] to study decoherence in a system coupled to a spin bath. The present methodology allows a systematic incorporation of higher-order anharmonic effects of the bath in dynamical calculations. We investigate the leading order corrections to the linear response approximations for spin bath models. Two kinds of spin-based environments are considered: (1) a bath of spins discretized from a continuous spectral density and (2) a bath of localized nuclear or electron spins. The main difference resides with how the bath frequency and the system-bath coupling parameters are distributed in an environment. When discretized from a continuous spectral density, the system-bath coupling typically scales as ∼1/NB where N B is the number of bath spins. This scaling suppresses the non-Gaussian characteristics of the spin bath and justifies the linear response approximations in the thermodynamic limit. For the nuclear/electron spin bath models, system-bath couplings are directly deduced from spin-spin interactions and do not necessarily obey the 1/NB scaling. It is not always possible to justify the linear response approximations in this case. Furthermore, if the spin-spin Hamiltonian is highly symmetrical, there exist additional constraints that generate highly non-Markovian and persistent dynamics that is beyond the linear response treatments.

•Jan 1, 2017•30 citations

Photon and spin dependence of the resonance line shape in the strong coupling regime

Seiji Miyashita, Tatsuhiko Shirai, Takashi Mori +3 more

We study the quantum dynamics of a spin ensemble coupled to cavity photons. Recently, related experimental results have been reported, showing the existence of the strong coupling regime in such systems. We study the eigenenergy distribution of the multi-spin system (following the Tavis-Cummings model) which shows a peculiar structure as a function of the number of cavity photons and of spins. We study how this structure causes changes in the spectrum of the admittance in the linear response theory, and also the frequency dependence of the excited quantities in the stationary state under a probing field. In particular, we investigate how the structure of the higher excited energy levels changes the spectrum from a double-peak structure (the so-called vacuum field Rabi splitting) to a single peak structure. We also point out that the spin dynamics in the region of the double-peak structure corresponds to recent experiments using cavity ringing while in region of the single peak structure, it corresponds to the coherent Rabi oscillation in a driving electromagnetic filed. Using a standard Lindblad type mechanism, we study the effect of dissipations on the line width and separation in the computed spectra. In particular, we study the relaxation of the total spin in the general case of a spin ensemble in which the total spin of the system is not specified. The theoretical results are correlated with experimental evidence of the strong coupling regime, achieved with a spin 1/2 ensemble.

arXiv:1206.2394•Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Jun 8, 2012•9 citations

Absorption line shape of two coupled oscillators decaying in two different mediums

Arturo Hardisson, F. Mauricio, Santiago Velasco

Abstract The linear response theory is used to study the line shape of two coupled oscillators, decaying in two different baths, when one of the oscillators is coupled to the radiation field. The baths are considered to be thermally excited. The analysis is based on the computation of the correlation functions 〈a (t)ai (0)〉 and 〈ai (t)a (0)〉 of each oscillator, taking the coefficients associated with the operators a and ai in the Heisenbemg representation as the starting point of the calculation. The line shape in different cases is also discussed.

International Journal of Quantum Chemistry•Jun 1, 1977•1 citation

Absorption and Emission Line-Shape Functions for Driven Atoms

B. R. Mollow

The effect of a driving or pump field on the emission and absorption line-shape functions for an atom is discussed. The pump field is assumed to oscillate at a frequency near the resonance frequency for transitions between a single pair of atomic states, and transitions between one of these states and any other state of the atom are analyzed. The pump field is treated classically, and atomic relaxation is treated in general terms. The emission and absorption line-shape function (the latter is defined as the rate of absorption of energy from a weak signal field, applied in addition to the pump field, as a function of the signal-field frequency) are found by evaluating the relevant two-time atomic correlation functions in the Markoff approximation. In the limit of high pump-field intensity, both the absorption and the emission spectra are doubly peaked at frequencies which differ from the usual resonance frequency by $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\frac{1}{2} \ensuremath{\Omega}$, where $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ is the frequency of the pump-field-induced oscillations in the populations of the two strongly coupled states. The absorption and the emission spectra are represented by essentially the same function in the limit of high pump-field intensity, as they are also in the limit of vanishing pump-field intensity. For intermediate pump-field intensities, however, the two functions are quite different in form, and no simple proportionality exists between them.

Physical Review A•Mar 1, 1972•145 citations
Absorption spectra are calculated for four model systems using two different methods for the calculation: The first is the standard linear response technique, while the second involves direct calculation of the energy dissipated in the sample interacting with the applied field, thus corresponding exactly to what is in fact measured experimentally. This latter technique, which we call the direct method, agrees with a linear response (as it must) for weakly applied fields for which the first-order perturbation analysis underlying linear response is in fact valid. For cases in which the system/field interaction is stronger, the linear approximation becomes poor, and the direct method, which includes the field-induced dynamics and in itself contains no approximations, is far better. The four systems considered consist of either single or coupled pairs of harmonic oscillators or two-level systems (spins) each in a thermal bath and coupled to the field by a displacement coupling. For both linear-response and direct calculations the system/field dynamics is solved exactly and the system/bath dynamics treated using a semigroup technique. For the harmonic oscillators, for which the population in any single excited state can never become large, the nonlinear effects (those present in the direct but not in the linear response) are quite minor. For the two-level/spin/systems, however, substantial corrections to the linear-response result are found in the direct calculation. These include power (or saturation) broadening and the appearance, when the two spins are coupled strongly to each other and one is coupled strongly to the field, of a new line at the averaged frequency of the two spins. For even stronger coupling, the line shape becomes very complex (corresponding to the full 15D algebra of the two spins plus the field), exhibiting several peaks and Fano antiresonances. The direct method, which is based on work of Lebowitz, seems to offer substantial advantages for the analysis of systems in which the applied field interactions are strong: This situation, common in microwave and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, is also relevant to high-energy laser studies.
In a generic quantum mechanical description of a molecule interacting with its thermal environment, the molecule is represented as a few level system (in the simplest description just two, for example, ground and excited states) and the environment is often modeled as a bath of harmonic oscillators. The resulting theoretical framework is known as the spin–boson model, a term that seems to have emerged in the Kondo problem literature (which deals with the behavior of magnetic impurities in metals) during the 1960s, but is now used in a much broader context. Indeed, it has become one of the central models of theoretical physics, with applications in physics, chemistry, and biology that range far beyond the subject of this book. Transitions between molecular electronic states coupled to nuclear vibrations, environmental phonons, and photon modes of the radiation field fall within this class of problems. The present chapter discusses this model and some of its mathematical implications. The reader may note that some of the subjects discussed in Chapter 9 are reiterated here in this more general framework. In Sections 2.2 and 2.9 we have discussed the dynamics of the two-level system and of the harmonic oscillator, respectively. These exactly soluble models are often used as prototypes of important classes of physical system. The harmonic oscillator is an exact model for a mode of the radiation field and provides good starting points for describing nuclear motions in molecules and in solid environments. It can also describe the short-time dynamics of liquid environments via the instantaneous normal mode approach. In fact, many linear response treatments in both classical and quantum dynamics lead to harmonic oscillator models: Linear response implies that forces responsible for the return of a system to equilibrium depend linearly on the deviation from equilibrium—a harmonic oscillator property! We will see a specific example of this phenomenology in our discussion of dielectric response in Section 16.9.
We use the “generalized hierarchical equation of motion” proposed in Paper I [C.-Y. Hsieh and J. Cao, J. Chem. Phys. 148, 014103 (2018)] to study decoherence in a system coupled to a spin bath. The present methodology allows a systematic incorporation of higher-order anharmonic effects of the bath in dynamical calculations. We investigate the leading order corrections to the linear response approximations for spin bath models. Two kinds of spin-based environments are considered: (1) a bath of spins discretized from a continuous spectral density and (2) a bath of localized nuclear or electron spins. The main difference resides with how the bath frequency and the system-bath coupling parameters are distributed in an environment. When discretized from a continuous spectral density, the system-bath coupling typically scales as ∼1/NB where NB is the number of bath spins. This scaling suppresses the non-Gaussian characteristics of the spin bath and justifies the linear response approximations in the thermodynamic limit. For the nuclear/electron spin bath models, system-bath couplings are directly deduced from spin-spin interactions and do not necessarily obey the 1/NB scaling. It is not always possible to justify the linear response approximations in this case. Furthermore, if the spin-spin Hamiltonian is highly symmetrical, there exist additional constraints that generate highly non-Markovian and persistent dynamics that is beyond the linear response treatments.
We use the "generalized hierarchical equation of motion" proposed in Paper I [C.-Y. Hsieh and J. Cao, J. Chem. Phys. 148, 014103 (2018)] to study decoherence in a system coupled to a spin bath. The present methodology allows a systematic incorporation of higher-order anharmonic effects of the bath in dynamical calculations. We investigate the leading order corrections to the linear response approximations for spin bath models. Two kinds of spin-based environments are considered: (1) a bath of spins discretized from a continuous spectral density and (2) a bath of localized nuclear or electron spins. The main difference resides with how the bath frequency and the system-bath coupling parameters are distributed in an environment. When discretized from a continuous spectral density, the system-bath coupling typically scales as ∼1/NB where N B is the number of bath spins. This scaling suppresses the non-Gaussian characteristics of the spin bath and justifies the linear response approximations in the thermodynamic limit. For the nuclear/electron spin bath models, system-bath couplings are directly deduced from spin-spin interactions and do not necessarily obey the 1/NB scaling. It is not always possible to justify the linear response approximations in this case. Furthermore, if the spin-spin Hamiltonian is highly symmetrical, there exist additional constraints that generate highly non-Markovian and persistent dynamics that is beyond the linear response treatments.
We study the quantum dynamics of a spin ensemble coupled to cavity photons. Recently, related experimental results have been reported, showing the existence of the strong coupling regime in such systems. We study the eigenenergy distribution of the multi-spin system (following the Tavis-Cummings model) which shows a peculiar structure as a function of the number of cavity photons and of spins. We study how this structure causes changes in the spectrum of the admittance in the linear response theory, and also the frequency dependence of the excited quantities in the stationary state under a probing field. In particular, we investigate how the structure of the higher excited energy levels changes the spectrum from a double-peak structure (the so-called vacuum field Rabi splitting) to a single peak structure. We also point out that the spin dynamics in the region of the double-peak structure corresponds to recent experiments using cavity ringing while in region of the single peak structure, it corresponds to the coherent Rabi oscillation in a driving electromagnetic filed. Using a standard Lindblad type mechanism, we study the effect of dissipations on the line width and separation in the computed spectra. In particular, we study the relaxation of the total spin in the general case of a spin ensemble in which the total spin of the system is not specified. The theoretical results are correlated with experimental evidence of the strong coupling regime, achieved with a spin 1/2 ensemble.
Abstract The linear response theory is used to study the line shape of two coupled oscillators, decaying in two different baths, when one of the oscillators is coupled to the radiation field. The baths are considered to be thermally excited. The analysis is based on the computation of the correlation functions 〈a (t)ai (0)〉 and 〈ai (t)a (0)〉 of each oscillator, taking the coefficients associated with the operators a and ai in the Heisenbemg representation as the starting point of the calculation. The line shape in different cases is also discussed.
The effect of a driving or pump field on the emission and absorption line-shape functions for an atom is discussed. The pump field is assumed to oscillate at a frequency near the resonance frequency for transitions between a single pair of atomic states, and transitions between one of these states and any other state of the atom are analyzed. The pump field is treated classically, and atomic relaxation is treated in general terms. The emission and absorption line-shape function (the latter is defined as the rate of absorption of energy from a weak signal field, applied in addition to the pump field, as a function of the signal-field frequency) are found by evaluating the relevant two-time atomic correlation functions in the Markoff approximation. In the limit of high pump-field intensity, both the absorption and the emission spectra are doubly peaked at frequencies which differ from the usual resonance frequency by $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\frac{1}{2} \ensuremath{\Omega}$, where $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ is the frequency of the pump-field-induced oscillations in the populations of the two strongly coupled states. The absorption and the emission spectra are represented by essentially the same function in the limit of high pump-field intensity, as they are also in the limit of vanishing pump-field intensity. For intermediate pump-field intensities, however, the two functions are quite different in form, and no simple proportionality exists between them.