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Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

The quantum rate of escape from a metastable state non-linearly coupled to a heat bath driven by external colored noise

Pulak K. Ghosh, Jyotipratim Ray Chaudhuri

Published Feb 28, 2008• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We have studied the quantum stochastic dynamics of a system whose interaction with a reservoir is non-linear in system coordinates. In addition, the bath particles are driven by external noise with finite correlation. The effects of the space dependent friction and correlation of the external noise on the rate of decay of a particle from a metastable well have been examined. At a critical value of the correlation, the variation of the quantum decay rate versus the external noise strength exhibits a resonance.

DOI
10.1088/1742-5468/2008/02/p02014

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We have studied the quantum stochastic dynamics of a system whose interaction with a reservoir is non-linear in system coordinates. In addition, the bath particles are driven by external noise with finite correlation. The effects of the space dependent friction and correlation of the external noise on the rate of decay of a particle from a metastable well have been examined. At a critical value of the correlation, the variation of the quantum decay rate versus the external noise strength exhibits a resonance.
We address the issue of a system that has been tacitly made thermodynamically open by externally driving the associated heat bath in an attempt to gain better insight regarding many physical situations that are akin to this problem. This work embodies the study of the quantum effects in the rate of decay from a metastable state of a Brownian particle which is in contact with a correlated noise-driven bath. We do this by initiating from a suitable system-reservoir model to derive the operator-valued Langevin equation. This further leads us to the corresponding c-number analog that includes quantum effects in leading order. Suitable mathematical treatment culminates in the quantum Fokker-Planck equation, the solution to which yields the rate expression. Finally, we put this to thorough numerical analysis.
A system-reservoir nonlinear coupling model is proposed for a quantum system when the associated bath is not in thermal equilibrium but is modulated by an external colored noise, to present a microscopic approach to quantum state-dependent diffusion and multiplicative noise in terms of a quantum Langevin description. Consequently, the Fokker-Planck equation in position space, valid in the overdamped limit, for multiplicative colored noise is constructed to explore the possibility of observing a quantum current and dependence of the current on various parameters of external noise is examined.
The coupling between system and reservoir is considered to be linear in the coordinates of the bath but nonlinear in the system's coordinate. A dissipative threshold is observed at finite temperatures due to nonlinear dissipation. The quantum decay rate of a metastable state including higher-order expanded terms of the coupling form function is proposed, which can be strongly decreased at finite temperatures when the quantum dissipative threshold is added to the saddle point of the potential.
We consider the decay of a metastable state, coupled to a thermal reservoir, by quantum tunnelling. We calculate the leading exponential term in the W.K.B. expansion of the decay rate through a variational approximation. The approach is simple, quick and versatile, when compared with the alternative method which involves the numerical solution of non-linear, non-local, integro-differential equations. We have demonstrated the versatility of the variational approach by applying it to a few types of potentials, most of which have not been previously studied. In the few cases where numerical results are available, the variational approximation gives excellent agreement. In the cases where no numerical results are available for comparison, the variational approximation reproduces trends that are either physically reasonable or that may be inferred by interpolation between exactly soluble limits. We also address the question: What are the effects of frequency dependent friction, or a finite noise correlation time, on the quantum tunnellling rate? This question is one that has been recently broached in the discussion of experiments on highly damped r.f. SQUIDs and Josephson junctions. We find that the effect of the memory time is to reduce the lifetime of the metastable state, towards its undamped value. Again, we find that the variational approximation reproduces the exact variation of the action to a surprisingly good degree of accuracy.
Quantum decay rates for barrier potentials driven by external stochastic and periodic forces in the strong damping regime are studied. Based on the quantum Smoluchowski equation derived recently by Ankerhold, Pechukas, and Grabert [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 086802 (2001)] explicit analytical and numerical results are presented for the case of the resonant activation phenomenon in a bistable potential and the escape from a metastable well with oscillating barrier, respectively. The significant impact of quantum fluctuations is revealed.
The stabilizing effect of quantum fluctuations on the escape process and the relaxation dynamics from a quantum metastable state are investigated. Specifically, the quantum dynamics of a multilevel bistable system coupled to a bosonic Ohmic thermal bath in strong dissipation regime is analyzed. The study is performed by a non-perturbative method based on the real-time path integral approach of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional. We consider a strongly asymmetric double well potential with and without a monochromatic external driving, and with an out-of-equilibrium initial condition. In the absence of driving we observe a nonmonotonic behavior of the escape time from the metastable region, as a function both of the system-bath coupling coefficient and the temperature. This indicates a stabilizing effect of the quantum fluctuations. In the presence of driving our findings indicate that, as the coupling coefficient γ increases, the escape time, initially controlled by the external driving, shows resonant peaks and dips, becoming frequency-independent for higher γ values. Moreover, the escape time from the metastable state displays a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the temperature, the frequency of the driving, and the thermal-bath coupling, which indicates the presence of a quantum noise enhanced stability phenomenon. Finally, we investigate the role of different spectral densities, both in sub-Ohmic and super-Ohmic dissipation regime and for different cutoff frequencies, on the relaxation dynamics from the quantum metastable state. The results obtained indicate that, in the crossover dynamical regime characterized by damped intrawell oscillations and incoherent tunneling, the spectral properties of the thermal bath influence non-trivially the short time behavior and the time scales of the relaxation dynamics from the metastable state.