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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Statistical aspects of dissipation by Landau-Zener transitions

Michael Wilkinson

Published Nov 7, 1988• 168 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Considers the effect of slowly varying the parameters X i of a finite-sized quantum mechanical system. The system is excited to higher energies by Landau-Zener transitions at avoided crossing; since this increases the energy of the system, it has the effect of dissipation of the driving motion. The rate of dissipation depends on the level spacing distribution of the system. When the spectral statistics are those of the Gaussian unitary ensemble, the rate of dissipation is proportional to X i 2 , i.e. there is viscous or ohmic damping. When the spectral statistics are of those of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble, the rate of dissipation is proportional to X i 3 2/.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/21/21/011

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The European Physical Journal B•Mar 1, 2022•1 citation
Considers the effect of slowly varying the parameters X i of a finite-sized quantum mechanical system. The system is excited to higher energies by Landau-Zener transitions at avoided crossing; since this increases the energy of the system, it has the effect of dissipation of the driving motion. The rate of dissipation depends on the level spacing distribution of the system. When the spectral statistics are those of the Gaussian unitary ensemble, the rate of dissipation is proportional to X i 2 , i.e. there is viscous or ohmic damping. When the spectral statistics are of those of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble, the rate of dissipation is proportional to X i 3 2/.
We establish a stochastic thermodynamics for a Fermionic level driven by a time-dependent force and interacting with initially thermalized levels playing the role of a reservoir. The driving induces consecutive avoided crossings between system and reservoir levels described within Landau-Zener theory. We derive the resulting system dynamics and thermodynamics and identify energy, work, heat, entropy, and dissipation. Our theory perfectly reproduces the numerically exact quantum work statistics obtained using a two point measurements approach of the total energy and provides an explicit expression for the dissipation in terms of diabatic transitions.
The Landau-Zener transition in a two level system can be suppressed or enhanced by coupling to an environment, depending on the temperature and the environment spectral function. We consider the marginal spectral function, when the dissipation effects are important for arbitrarily slow motion. Landau-Zener transition rate demonstrates a non-trivial dependence of the on the ``bias'', i. e. on the rate of the two energy levels relative motion. The Landau-Zener transition is fully suppressed for the values of the bias below a threshold bias set by the coupling strength. Above the threshold, the transition rate for zero temperature is found using the instanton method. At finite temperature, the Landau-Zener transition rate has a non-monotonic dependence on the coupling strength, being suppressed at the strong coupling.
The Hamiltonian of a quantum-mechanical system contains a time-dependent parameter X. The system is prepared in a highly excited eigenstate of the instantaneous Hamiltonian at t=0, and we compute the amplitudes 〈n(t)\ensuremath{\Vert}\ensuremath{\psi}(t)〉 to be in the eigenstates \ensuremath{\Vert}n〉 of the instantaneous Hamiltonian H^(X(t)) at later times. It is found that for generic systems, with no symmetries yielding additional quantum numbers, the occupation probability spreads diffusively away from the initial state. This diffusion is an irreversible process, and can be related to a model for dissipation. The diffusion constant D is investigated numerically in a random matrix model as a function of X\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{}, the rate of change of the parameter. Good agreement with theoretical predictions is found in two limiting regimes. When X\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{} is large, D is proportional to X\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{} 2^{2}2, corresponding to the Ohmic dissipation predicted by the Kubo formula. When X\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{} is small, Landau-Zener transitions are the mechanism for diffusion, and D is proportional to X\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{} 3/2^{3/2}3/2.
Landau-Zener (LZ) transitions of a two-level system (e.g., electronic spin in molecular magnets) coupled to one or many environmental spins (e.g., nuclear spins) are studied. For rather general interactions the LZ problem is reduced to that of a Landau-Zener grid. It is shown analytically that environmental spins initially in their ground state do not influence the staying probability PPP. This changes if they are prepared in a statistical ensemble. For a more specific model with environmental spins in a transverse field, LZ transitions are studied in the case of well-separated resonances in the LZ grid. The full evolution of the system is described as a succession of elementary transitions at avoided crossings and free evolution between them. If the environmental spins are strongly coupled to the central spin, their effect on PPP is weak. In other cases LZ transitions are strongly suppressed and PPP is decreasing very slowly with the sweep-rate parameter $\ensuremath{\epsilon}\ensuremath{\propto}1/v$, vvv being the energy sweep rate.
This paper is concerned with the study of one-body dissipation effects in idealized models resembling a nucleus. In particular, we study the quantum mechanics of a free particle that collides elastically with the slowly moving walls of a Bunimovich stadium billiard. Our results are twofold. First, we develop a method to solve in a simple way the quantum mechanical evolution of planar billiards with moving walls. The formalism is based on the scaling method [E. Vergini and M. Saraceno, Phys. Rev. E 52, 2204 (1995)] which enables the resolution of the problem in terms of quantities defined over the boundary of the billiard. The second result is related to the quantum aspects of dissipation in systems with complex spectra. We conclude that in a slowly varying evolution the energy is transferred from the boundary to the particle through Landau-Zener transitions. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
Abstract We study the dynamics of a quantum two-state system driven through an avoided crossing under the influence of a super-Ohmic environment. We determine the Landau–Zener probability employing the numerical exact quasi-adiabatic path integral and a Markovian weak coupling approach. Increasing the driving time in the numerical protocol, we find converged results which shows that super-Ohmic environments only influence the Landau Zener probability within a finite crossing time window. This crossing time is qualitatively determined by the environmental cut-off energy. At weak coupling, we show that the Markovian weak coupling approach provides an accurate description. Since pure dephasing of a super-Ohmic bath is non-Markovian, this highlights that pure dephasing hardly influences the Landau–Zener probability. The finite crossing time window, thus, results from the suppression of relaxation once the energy splitting exceeds the environmental cut-off energy. Graphical abstract