Time evolution of a quantum system coupled to a Gaussian-Markoffian bath

Yoshitaka Tanimura, Ryogo Kubo

A test system is assumed to interact with a heat bath consisting of harmonic oscillators or an equivalent bath with a proper frequency spectrum producing a Gaussian-Markoffian random perturbation. The effect of reaction of the test system to the bath is considered in the high temperature approximation. Elimination of the bath using the influence functional method of Feynman and Vernon yields a continuous fraction expression for the reduced density matrix of the test system. The result affords a basis to clarify the relationship between the stochastic and the dynamical approaches to treat the problem of partial destruction of quantum coherence of a system interacting with its environment.

Dan Speed

Yoshitaka Tanimura, Ryogo Kubo

Two-time correlation functions of physical operators of a system interacting with a heat bath producing a Gaussian-Markoffian noise are treated with the use of Feynman-Vernon's influence functional formalism. The Laplace transforms of correlation functions are shown to be expressed in terms of continued fractions of relevant hyperoperators. The result is valid to all orders of the system-bath interaction. In the limitation of motional narrowing, it reduces to those obtained in conventional methods.

Arno Böhm, Piotr Kielanowski, G. B. Mainland

Hanno Gassmann, Florian Marquardt, Christoph Bruder

We analyze a model of a nonlinear bath consisting of a single two-level system coupled to a linear bath (a classical noise force in the limit considered here). This allows us to study the effects of a nonlinear, non-Markoffian bath in a particularly simple situation. We analyze the effects of this bath onto the dynamics of a spin by calculating the decay of the equilibrium correlator of the z-component of the spin. The exact results are compared with those obtained using three commonly used approximations: a Markoffian master equation for the spin dynamics, a weak-coupling approximation, and the substitution of a linear bath for the original nonlinear bath.