In this chapter we study some properties of systems of coupled quadratic quantum Hamiltonians. The well known example is coupled harmonic oscillators appearing in the Quantum Brownian Motion. An open system is a physical (S) interacting with the environment (E) such that the total system
(S∪E) is isolated from the rest of the universe. So we have two independent Hamiltonians
H^S,
H^E and an interaction
V^ between (S) and (E). The main problem discussed for open systems is to understand the dynamical action of the interaction
V^ with the environment on the time dependent evolution of (S) which is now irreversible because a part of its energy escapes to the environment. An important physical effect of the interaction of the environment on a quantum system is decoherence which give an explanation for the mechanism driving the quantum-to-classical transition. We restrict ourself to few mathematical problems related with this very active field of research in physics [155, 200, 231, 270]. In a first part we study the purity of a state of (S) (or the linear entropy) in a short time approximation. In a second part we discuss the separability of bipartite systems. In a third part we establish a master equation (or a Fokker-Planck type equation) for the time evolution of the reduced matrix density for coupled quadratic Hamiltonians by a bilinear inter-action. We give an explicit formula for the solution of this master equation so that the time evolution of the reduced density at time t is written as a convolution integral for the reduced density at initial time
t0=0, with a Gaussian kernel, for
0≤t<tc where
tc∈]0,∞] is a critical time such that reversibility is lost for
t>tc if
tc<+∞. Some manifestations of decoherence, for
t>0 small enough, are proved on our simple model which is similar to a representation of the Schrödinger cat.
Our main goal in this paper is to extend to any system of coupled quadratic Hamiltonians some properties known for systems of quantum harmonic oscillators related with the Brownian Quantum Motion model. In a first part we get a rather general formula for the purity (or the linear entropy) in a short time approximation. In a second part we establish a master equation (or a Fokker-Planck type equation) for the time evolution of the reduced matrix density for bilinearly coupled quadratic Hamiltonians. The Hamiltonians and the bilinear coupling can be time dependent. Moreover we give an explicit formula for the solution of this master equation so that the time evolution of the reduced density at time
t is connected with the reduced density at initial time
t0 for $t_0 \leq t
Optimal control is a central problem in quantum thermodynamics. When minimizing dissipated work and work fluctuations defined via the two-point measurement scheme in open quantum systems, existing approaches largely focus on the rapid- and slow-driving limits, leaving the behavior at intermediate timescales elusive. In this work, by numerically optimizing the driving protocols, we demonstrate that the open quantum systems exhibit distinct optimal structures not captured by the conventional limits. Specifically, in the coherent spin-boson model, we find that the optimal protocol switches discontinuously between distinct locally optimal solutions as the relative weight between dissipation and fluctuations is varied. Furthermore, for a single-level quantum dot coupled to a fermionic reservoir, the optimized protocol develops a characteristic multi-step structure.
We study the optimal control problem in a non-Markovian open quantum system. The quantum system of interest is coupled to its local environment, which is dissipative in nature and tends to decay the quantum system. Based on the non-Markovian master equation, we study the non-Markovian effects on the system dynamics. The non-Markovian environment has dual effects on the quantum system: the dissipation and the backaction. The dissipation effect makes the system lose of quantum features, whereas the backaction revives it. We further design quantum control laws to control the system. The optimal control principle is studied to steer to quantum state to a target state. Finally, as an example, we used the optimal control method to control the quantum decoherence.
A formalism based on Pontryagin's maximum principle is applied to determine the time-optimal protocol that drives a general initial state to a target state by a Hamiltonian with limited control, i.e., there is a single control field with bounded amplitude. The coupling between the bath and the qubit is modeled by a Lindblad master equation. Dissipation typically drives the system to the maximally mixed state; consequently, there generally exists an optimal evolution time beyond which the decoherence prevents the system from getting closer to the target state. For some specific dissipation channel, however, the optimal control can keep the system from the maximum entropy state for infinitely long. The conditions under which this specific situation arises are discussed in detail. The numerical procedure to construct the time-optimal protocol is described. In particular, the formalism adopted here can efficiently evaluate the time-dependent singular control which turns out to be crucial in controlling either an isolated or a dissipative qubit.
Dissipation is usually considered a negative factor for observing quantum effects and for harnessing them for quantum technologies. Here we propose a scheme for speeding up the generation of quantum entanglement between two coupled qubits by introducing a strong dissipation channel to one of these qubits. The maximal entanglement is conditionally established by evenly distributing a single excitation between these two qubits. When the excitation is initially held by the dissipative qubit, the dissipation accelerates the excitation re-distribution process for the quantum state trajectory without quantum jumps. Our results show that the time needed to conditionally attain the maximal entanglement is monotonously decreased as the dissipative rate is increased. We further show that this scheme can be generalized to accelerate the production of the W state for the three-qubit system, where one NH qubit is symmetrically coupled to two Hermitian qubits.