Time-delayed control of quantum phase transitions
Wassilij Kopylov
Abstract
In this theoretical thesis we apply the time-delayed Pyragas feedback scheme to several many-body quantum systems in order to control the quantum phases in a rather new way. The systems are the dissipative Dicke model, the dissipative Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model and a two-mode Tavis-Cummings laser. In the dissipative Dicke model our chosen way of feedback control, namely the modulation of the atom-field coupling by a difference of emitted photon numbers at different times, creates additional new quantum phases. These show up as an infinite sequence of super- and subcritical Hopf bifurcations of the stationary state by generation of stable and unstable limit cycles. We analyze and discuss the appearing bifurcations as a function of time delay and feedback strength and calculate an analytical expression for the phase boundaries. On top of this, we argue that our scheme is easy to implement within existing experimental setups, as in experiments the coupling is tuned by laser intensity. In the dissipative LMG model we investigate how the dissipation affects the excited state quantum phase transition (ESQPT). We show that with dissipative effects the ESQPT is directly visible in the spectrum of the effective Hamiltonian and not only in the density of states. Moreover, the ESQPT signal in the system observables gets smoothed. Then we use time delayed feedback control to restore the ESQPT signal by creation of new phases. We analyze and discuss the behavior of the system for different time delays. We argue that using our feedback scheme it is easier to measure ESQPT in the open LMG system than without it in the closed one. Then we use a 2-mode laser based on the Tavis-Cummings model with additional incoherent pumping and decay channels. Instead of the usually used rate-equation model, we describe the two-mode laser starting from a quantum mechanical description and present an analytical solution of the corresponding stationary mean-field equations in thermodynamic limit. We analyze the stationary solutions and their stability and obtain a complex phase diagram with up to 4 fixed points. In addition to this, we apply different time delayed Pyragas feedback control schemes, which allow us to influence the laser dynamic. The frequency of the emitted laser light can be controlled then or an unstable fixed point stabilized. In this way, our thesis links the topics of control, phase transitions and dissipation together which induce an interesting and unexpected dynamics in quantum many-body systems. Although all final calculations are at the mean-field level, we hold them to be valid in thermodynamic limit.