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Physical Review A

Variational functions in driven open quantum systems

Matthias Jakob, Stig Stenholm

Published Mar 26, 2003• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider the Lindblad-type master equation of an open system. We address the question how to construct a functional of the quantum state which displays a monotonic behavior in time. This thus defines uniquely the direction of time in the system. As the generator of time evolution is not a Hermitian operator, the theory requires the considerations of right and left eigenstates. In this paper we assume them to form two complete bases, which allows us to construct the desired quantity. This can be interpreted as a generalized entropy functional. We show how the construction is carried out in the general case, and we illustrate the theory by solving the case of an externally driven and damped two-level system. The treatment is related to earlier work in the field, and its possible relation to time inversion is discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.67.032111

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We consider the Lindblad-type master equation of an open system. We address the question how to construct a functional of the quantum state which displays a monotonic behavior in time. This thus defines uniquely the direction of time in the system. As the generator of time evolution is not a Hermitian operator, the theory requires the considerations of right and left eigenstates. In this paper we assume them to form two complete bases, which allows us to construct the desired quantity. This can be interpreted as a generalized entropy functional. We show how the construction is carried out in the general case, and we illustrate the theory by solving the case of an externally driven and damped two-level system. The treatment is related to earlier work in the field, and its possible relation to time inversion is discussed.
We have derived a Lyapunov functional for a degenerate open atomic system. This functional develops monotonically towards its stationary state. The open system is described by a Lindblad-type master equation. For the construction of the variational functional it is necessary that the Lindblad operator can be diagonalized. Since the generator of motion is non-Hermitian, diagonalization is, in general, only possible if the eigenvalues are nondegenerate. In this paper, we propose that in a physical system the biorthogonal eigenbasis of the Lindblad operator remains complete even when degeneracy is present. Thus diagonalization of the Lindblad operator, and consequently the construction of the variational functional, is still possible. We discuss the reasons and illustrate the theory of the variational functional for a driven $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type three-level atom with degenerate ground state. The degeneracy has interesting effects on the variational functional in the steady state with respect to its interpretation as an entropic quantity. In case of the driven three-level atom, the dark state turns out to be an isentropic state.
We earlier constructed a generalized entropy concept to show the direction of time in an evolution following from a Markov generator. In such a dynamical system the entity found changes in a monotonic way starting from any initial state of the system. In this article, we generalize the treatment to the case when population is pumped into the system from levels not explicitly considered. These populations then pass through the coupled levels and exit by decay to levels outside the system. We derive the form of the equation of motion and relate it to our earlier treatments. It turns out that the formalism can be generalized to the new situation. Its physically relevant features are demonstrated and the behavior obtained is illustrated by a numerical treatment of the standard two-level system with pumping and relaxation included.
We discuss the mathematical structure of quantum states on which the master equation generates a semigroup of irreversible time evolution. As an illustration of an open system we choose to treat the harmonic oscillator, in which case we can perform the construction of a complete set of eigenelements describing both the attenuator and the amplifier. We show that the corresponding eigenelements belong to adjoint spaces, and their orthogonality and completeness is shown explicitly. We also show that our results are in agreement with earlier work by Briegel and Englert. We illustrate the use of our results by deriving previously known time-dependent results for some simple cases.
Abstract We investigate the dynamics of open quantum systems which are initially correlated with their environment. The strategy of our approach is to analyze how given, fixed initial correlations modify the evolution of the open system with respect to the corresponding uncorrelated dynamical behavior with the same fixed initial environmental state, described by a completely positive dynamical map. We show that, for any predetermined initial correlations, one can introduce a linear dynamical map on the space of operators of the open system which acts like the proper dynamical map on the set of physical states and represents its unique linear extension. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this construction leads to a linear, time-local quantum master equation with generalized Lindblad structure involving time-dependent, possibly negative transition rates. Thus, the general non-Markovian dynamics of an open quantum system can be described by means of a time-local master equation even in the case of arbitrary, fixed initial system–environment correlations. We present some illustrative examples and explain the relation of our approach to several other approaches proposed in the literature.
The time evolution of the density matrix of the damped harmonic oscillator is studied within the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems. The density matrix is represented via a generating function, which is obtained by solving a time-dependent linear partial differential equation derived from the master equation of the damped harmonic oscillator. Illustrative examples for specific initial conditions of the density matrix are provided. It is also shown that various master equations for the damped quantum oscillator, for damped collective modes in deep inelastic collisions of heavy ions and in different models of quantum optics are particular cases of the Lindblad equation and that only some of these equations satisfy the quantum mechanical constraints on the diffusion coefficients.
A closed expression for the density operator of the damped harmonic oscillator is extracted from the master equation based on the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems. The entropy and effective temperature of the system are subsequently calculated and their temporal behaviour is surveyed by showing how these quantities relax to their equilibrium values. The entropy for a state characterized by a Wigner distribution function which is Gaussian in form is found to depend only on the variance of the distribution function.