In this paper we study the so-called spin-boson system, namely {a two-level system} in interaction with a distinguished mode of a quantizedbosonic field. We give a brief description of the controlled Rabi and Jaynes--Cummings models and we discuss their appearance in the mathematics and physics literature. We then study the controllability of the Rabi model when the control is an external fieldacting on the bosonic part.Applying geometric control techniques to the Galerkin approximation andusing perturbation theory to guarantee non-resonance of the spectrum ofthe drift operator, we prove approximate controllability of thesystem, for almost every value of the interaction parameter.
In this paper we study the so-called spin-boson system, namely {a two-level system} in interaction with a distinguished mode of a quantizedbosonic field. We give a brief description of the controlled Rabi and Jaynes--Cummings models and we discuss their appearance in the mathematics and physics literature. We then study the controllability of the Rabi model when the control is an external fieldacting on the bosonic part.Applying geometric control techniques to the Galerkin approximation andusing perturbation theory to guarantee non-resonance of the spectrum ofthe drift operator, we prove approximate controllability of thesystem, for almost every value of the interaction parameter.
We investigate the controllability of the Jaynes-Cummings dynamics in the resonant and nearly resonant regime. We analyze two different types of control operators acting on the bosonic part, corresponding—in the application to cavity Quantum Electro Dynamics—to an external electric and magnetic field, respectively. For these models, we prove approximate controllability for all values of the coupling constant g∈R, except those in a countable set S* which is explicitly characterized in the statement. The proof relies on a spectral analysis which yields the non-resonance of the spectrum for every g∈R\S*.
We investigate the controllability of quantum systems in two different settings: the standard "closed" setting, in which a quantum system is seen as isolated and the control problem is formulated on the Schrödinger equation; the open setting that describes a quantum system in interaction with a larger one, of which just qualitative parameters are known, by means of the Lindblad equation on states. In the context of closed systems we focus our attention to an interesting class of models, namely the spin-boson models. The latter describe the interaction between a 2-level quantum system and finitely many distinguished modes of a bosonic field. We discuss two prototypical examples, the Rabi model and the Jaynes-Cummings model, which despite their age are still very popular in several fields of quantum physics. Notably, in the context of cavity Quantum Electro Dynamics (C-QED) they provide an approximate yet accurate description of the dynamics of a 2-level atom in a resonant microwave cavity, as in recent experiments of S. Haroche. We investigate the controllability properties of these models, analyzing two different types of control operators acting on the bosonic part, corresponding -in the application to cavity QED- to an external electric and magnetic field, respectively. We review some recent results and prove the approximate controllability of the Jaynes-Cummings model with these controls. This result is based on a spectral analysis exploiting the non-resonances of the spectrum. As far as the relation between the Rabi and the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonians concerns, we treat the so called rotating wave approximation in a rigorous framework. We formulate the problem as an adiabatic limit in which the detuning frequency and the interaction strength parameter goes to zero, known as the weak-coupling regime. We prove that, under certain hypothesis on the ratio between the detuning and the coupling, the Jaynes-Cumming and the Rabi dynamics exhibit the same behaviour, more precisely the evolution operators they generate are close in norm. In the framework of open quantum systems we investigate the controllability of the Lindblad equation. We consider a control acting adiabatically on the internal part of the system, which we see as a degree of freedom that can be used to contrast the action of the environment. The adiabatic action of the control is chosen to produce a robust transition. We prove, in the prototype case of a two-level system, that the system approach a set of equilibrium points determined by the environment, i.e. the parameters that specify the Lindblad operator. On that set the system can be adiabatically steered choosing a suitable control. The analysis is based on the application of geometrical singular perturbation methods.
These lecture notes originate from a one-semester course on the mathematical foundations of second quantization, first given at the Department of Physics of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in the Winter Semester 2025/26 to a mixed audience of physics and mathematics students. Their guiding thread is a class of physical models: spin-boson models, describing a two-level system coupled to a boson field. After summarizing the necessary background on unbounded operators, up to the Kato-Rellich and KLMN theorems, and developing direct sums and tensor products of Hilbert spaces and of unbounded operators, we treat single-mode boson fields, constructing the ladder and number operators and characterizing their domains, before moving to Fock spaces, second quantization, bosonic and fermionic annihilation and creation operators, and the canonical (anti)commutation relations. Throughout, spin-boson models provide both the motivation and the test bench for the formalism: we rigorously establish their self-adjointness, solve the pure dephasing and Jaynes-Cummings models explicitly, deriving their spectra and the qubit channels they induce, show how their multimode counterparts display irreversible decoherence and decay, and, in an appendix, prove the rotating-wave approximation for the quantum Rabi model with an explicit error bound. Finally, we use the KLMN theorem to construct spin-boson models with non-normalizable form factors, and briefly discuss stronger ultraviolet divergences and the need for renormalization. Exercises with full solutions are included.
The paradigmatic spin-boson model considers a spin degree of freedom interacting with an environment typically constituted by a continuum of bosonic modes. This ubiquitous model is of relevance in a number of physical systems where, in general, one has neither control over the bosonic modes, nor the ability to tune distinct interaction mechanisms. Despite this apparent lack of control, we present a suitable transformation that approximately maps the spin-boson dynamics into that of a tunable multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model undergoing dissipation. Interestingly, the latter model describes the coherent interaction between a spin and a single bosonic mode via the simultaneous exchange of n bosons per spin excitation. Resorting to the so-called reaction coordinate method, we identify a relevant collective bosonic mode in the environment, which is then used to generate multiphoton interactions following the proposed theoretical framework. Moreover, we show that spin-boson models featuring structured environments can lead to non-Markovian multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings dynamics. We discuss the validity of the proposed method depending on the parameters and analyse its performance, which is supported by numerical simulations. In this manner, the spin-boson model serves as a good analogue quantum simulator for the inspection and realization of multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings models, as well as the interplay of non-Markovian effects and, thus, as a simulator of light-matter systems with tunable interaction mechanisms.
The property of controllability of quantum systems is explored, and conditions for controllability based on Lie-algebraic properties are enunciated. Due consideration is given to the unbounded character of some of the operators that arise and to the generally noncompact nature of the operator algebras associated with the system. Results for both finite and infinite-dimensional systems are provided; in the latter case the results are not limited to cases having purely discrete spectra. The applicability of the results to systems with both bound and scattering states is demonstrated through examples, namely the Poschl-Teller potential and the repulsive radial oscillator, which reveal some of the subtleties of the controllability issue. Attention is also directed to transitivity of the pertinent Lie algebra of a system without drift as a necessary and sufficient condition for its controllability.
The quantum Rabi model is a model in quantum optics used to describe the interaction between a two-level atom and a single-level photon field.This model, described in 1963 by Jaynes and Cummings, is the fully quantized version of the original semi-classical model proposed in 1936 by Rabi.In previous years, the study of the properties of Hamiltonian of the quantum Rabi model and its energy levels (eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian) has been relegated mainly for two reasons.The first one was the belief that the quantum Rabi model was not an exactly solvable model, that is, that its energy levels could not be described analytically.The second reason is that in the parameter regime achievable at the time in experiments and applications, the quantum Rabi model could be approximated successfully by the Jaynes-Cummings model, a simpler model which is known to be exactly solvable.Both situations changed in recent years.In 2011, Daniel Braak proved the exact-solvability of the quantum Rabi model by constructing analytical solutions and defining a transcendental function, the G-function, whose zeros determine all the spectrum (with the exception of a (possible finite) set of exceptional eigenvalues).This pioneering technique has since then been successfully applied to show the exact-solvability of several models in quantum optics.On the other hand, due to the advances in experimental physics, starting from the first decade of this century, experiments have been steadily reaching parameter regimes where the Jaynes-Cummings model becomes unsuitable for approximation and in 2014, the experiments by Maissen et al reached regimes where it is imperative to consider the full Hamiltonian of the quantum Rabi model.Adding to this, recently there has also been proposals for applications of the quantum Rabi model in quantum information theory and quantum computing.For these reasons, there has been a large amount of research done in theoretical and experimental physics, and, more recently, mathematics on the subject of the quantum Rabi model, its generalizations and applications.In this thesis, we study the asymmetric quantum Rabi model, one of the generalizations of the quantum Rabi model.In this generalization, an additional non-trivial interaction term is introduced in the Hamiltonian, breaking the Z 2Z-symmetry of the quantum Rabi Hamiltonian.The presence of this symmetry in the quantum Rabi model explains the presence of crossings in the energy levels (degeneracies in the spectrum), so a priori there was no reason to expect degeneracies in the spectrum of the asymmetric version.In this work, we show that when the coefficient of the symmetry-breaking term is halfinteger, degeneracies appear in the spectrum of the asymmetric quantum Rabi model.This is done by studying the properties of the constraint polynomials, polynomials appearing in certain conditions that the parameters of the model must satisfy in order to have certain eigenvalues, called Juddian eigenvalues.The spectrum of the asymmetric quantum Rabi model is divided into different sets, an infinite set of regular eigenvalues, the zeros of the G-function and the exceptional eigenvalues, not captured as zeros of the G-function.The exceptional spectrum is further classified into Juddian and non-Juddian, according to the type of solution in the Segal-Bargmann space realization.These solutions are also described in terms of the sl 2 picture of the Hamiltonian in terms of irreducible representations of sl 2 .The case for Juddian and regular eigenvalues was already known, and in this thesis we complete the picture for the non-Juddian eigenvalues.Another main result of this work is to characterize the degeneracies of the asymmetric quantum Rabi model in terms of the types of eigenvalues and the parameters.Furthermore, by carefully studying the poles of the G-function, we define a new G-function whose zeros give the full spectrum of the asymmetric quantum Rabi model.Finally, we present a study on continued fractions expansions of integer powers of the Napier constant e with a nice representation and good convergence properties.This study is a byproduct of the study of certain orthogonal polynomial families related to the constraint polynomials of the AQRM.