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On Path Observables in Open Quantum Systems

J. Peÿsek

Published Jan 1, 2009• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We d iscuss several scenarios for breaking the time-reversal symmetry in quantum dissipative systems. We show that already on the level of semi-classical open systems weakly coupled to its environment, a repeated measurement of 'non-classical' observables leads to modified relations between the irreversibility of the process and the amount of dissipation. Our results are obtained by analyzing the decoherence functional of a simple two-level model and its behavior under time-reversal.

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•Jun 21, 2024•0 citations
We d iscuss several scenarios for breaking the time-reversal symmetry in quantum dissipative systems. We show that already on the level of semi-classical open systems weakly coupled to its environment, a repeated measurement of 'non-classical' observables leads to modified relations between the irreversibility of the process and the amount of dissipation. Our results are obtained by analyzing the decoherence functional of a simple two-level model and its behavior under time-reversal.
We propose an alternative notion of time reversal in open quantum systems as represented by linear quantum operations, and a related generalization of classical entropy production in the environment. This functional is the ratio of the probability to observe a transition between two states under the forward and the time reversed dynamics, and leads, as in the classical case, to fluctuation relations as tautological identities. As in classical dynamics in contact with a heat bath, time reversal is not unique, and we discuss several possibilities. For any bistochastic map its dual map preserves the trace and describes a legitimate dynamics reversed in time, in that case the entropy production in the environment vanishes. For a generic stochastic map we construct a simple quantum operation which can be interpreted as a time reversal. For instance, the decaying channel, which sends the excited state into the ground state with a certain probability, can be reversed into the channel transforming the ground state into the excited state with the same probability.
Irreversible behavior in open stochastic dynamical systems is quantified by stochastic entropy production, a property that measures the difference in likelihoods of forward and subsequent backward system evolution. But for a closed system, governed by deterministic dynamics, such an approach is not appropriate. Instead, we can consider the difference in likelihoods of forward and "obverse" behavior: the latter being a backward trajectory initiated at the same time as the forward trajectory. Such a comparison allows us to define "dissipation production," an analog of stochastic entropy production. It quantifies the breakage of a property of the evolution termed "obversibility" just as stochastic entropy production quantifies a breakage of reversibility. Both are manifestations of irreversibility. In this study we discuss dissipation production in a quantum system. We consider a simple, deterministic, two-level quantum system characterized by a statistical ensemble of state vectors, and we provide numerical results to illustrate the ideas. We consider cases that both do and do not satisfy an Evans-Searles Fluctuation Theorem for the dissipation production, and hence identify conditions under which the system displays time-asymmetric average behavior: an arrow of time.
It is one of the most important and long-standing issues of physics to derive the irreversibility out of a time-reversal symmetric equation of motion. The present paper considers the breaking of the time-reversal symmetry in open quantum systems and the emergence of an arrow of time. We claim that the time-reversal symmetric Schrödinger equation can have eigenstates that break the time-reversal symmetry if the system is open in the sense that it has at least a countably infinite number of states. Such eigenstates, namely the resonant and anti-resonant states, have complex eigenvalues. We show that, although these states are often called "unphysical", they observe the probability conservation in a particular way. We also comment that the seemingly Hermitian Hamiltonian is non-Hermitian in the functional space of the resonant and anti-resonant states, and hence there is no contradiction in the fact that it has complex eigenvalues. We finally show how the existence of the states that break the time-reversal symmetry affects the quantum dynamics. The dynamics that starts from a time-reversal symmetric initial state is dominated by the resonant states for t > 0 ; this explains the phenomenon of the arrow of time, in which the decay excels the growth. The time-reversal symmetry holds in that the dynamic ending at a time-reversal symmetric final state is dominated by the anti-resonant states for t < 0 .
Analyzing the dynamics of open quantum systems has a long history in mathematics and physics. Depending on the system at hand, basic physical phenomena that one would like to explain are, for example, convergence to equilibrium, the dynamics of quantum coherences (decoherence) and quantum correlations (entanglement), or the emergence of heat and particle fluxes in non-equilibrium situations. From the mathematical physics perspective, one of the main challenges is to derive the irreversible dynamics of the open system, starting from a unitary dynamics of the system and its environment. The repeated interactions systems considered in these notes are models of non-equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics. They are relevant in quantum optics, and more generally, serve as a relatively well treatable approximation of a more difficult quantum dynamics. In particular, the repeated interaction models allow to determine the large time (stationary) asymptotics of quantum systems out of equilibrium.
The problem of time’s arrow is (roughly) to understand why macroscopic physical processes typically evolve in a specific direction (the one we call “the future”) even though the underlying laws of physics describing the individual microscopic systems are time-reversal invariant. The standard answer to this problem is given by Boltzmann’s explanation of the II law of thermodynamics: a classical system starting in a non-equilibrium state spontaneously (i.e. with a high level of probability) tends towards equilibrium, thus implementing an irreversible process. However, this explanation has two drawbacks: 1. it needs a further assumption on the entropy of the initial state of the universe (past hypothesis); 2. microscopic systems (e.g. molecules in a box) should be represented as quantum states and not classical states. In this talk, I want to propose a different hypothesis to explain the origin of time’s arrow, based on quantum mechanics, specifically on decoherence theory. Differently from isolated systems, open quantum systems described by decoherence theory showirreversible behavior, as they evolve towards decoherence and von Neumann entropy increase. Is this behavior a sign of genuine irreversibility? And, if so, can this be linked to thermodynamic irreversibility?