In this thesis, we study the dynamics of open quantum systems in the overlapping resonances regime. An open quantum system consists of a small, finite-dimensional system S and a reservoir R, which interacts with the system S via some operator. The reservoir is, for example, modeled by a spatially infinitely extended free Bose gas in thermal equilibrium at positive temperature. One of the main tasks in the theory of open quantum system is to examine quantum phenomena observed in the small system, such as return to equilibrium and decoherence, brought about by the interaction with the environment. To deal with such a problem, one tries to study the dynamics of the total system S + R, which is generated by the total Hamiltonian. By tracing out the degrees of freedom of the reservoir, we obtain the dynamics of the small system. Over the last decade and a half, a perturbation theory based on quantum resonance methods has been developed in the isolated resonances regime. The perturbation theory developed so far permits a mathematically rigorous treatment of the dynamics for fixed, small system-reservoir coupling parameter λ. However, in complex quantum systems, e.g. when the dimension of small system is large, the problem belongs to the overlapping resonances regime. The theory mentioned above is not applicable in this regime. In this thesis, we adapt the perturbation theory for the treatment of such a regime. We first obtain a representation formula of the reduced dynamics involving resonances of an associated operator. By analyzing the behaviour of resonances, we derive the reduced density matrix of the small system. Furthermore, we consider the spin-boson model and analyze the transition from the isolated resonances regime to the overlapping one by using the Feshbach map. We also find a critical value, related to the parameters, which separates the two regimes, marking a sharp transition in the behaviour of the resonance energies.
Quantum many-body systems coupling photonic and matter degrees of freedom are ideal for the realization of driven open quantum dynamics at the intersection of quantum optics and condensed matter. They offer the possibility to address unresolved issues regarding a variety of non-equilibrium phenomena. In such open systems, the substructure of the reservoir then introduces further timescales that may enter into competition with rapid system processes, raising long-standing questions about the influence of non-Markovian effects on dynamics and equilibration out of equilibrium. \n \nThe central result of this thesis is a general pseudo-particle technique that can be applied to a large class of models of interacting light and matter and allows for realistic and efficient simulations of the full non-equilibrium dynamics of these systems. Since organic molecules, as used in experiments with photon condensates, which provide the main area of application for this thesis, possess an electronic transition coupled to vibrational phonon modes, we construct a representation where an auxiliary boson is assigned to each vibrational state of the molecule. An operator constraint then enforces single occupation across all of these states. We emphasize that we implement the operator constraint exactly and that we are the first to apply a faithful auxiliary-boson representation to open quantum systems. \n \nAs a contribution to bridging the gap between well-understood equilibrium and less explored non-equilibrium phenomena, we investigate photon condensates as they are driven away from equilibrium. The earliest signs of the non-equilibrium character of the driven-dissipative photon gas do not manifest in the spectrally resolved intensity distribution but in the time dependence of the intensity fluctuations. The energy flow through the system renders it {non-Hermitian} and induces a novel driven-dissipative transition in the second-order correlations characterized by the appearance of exceptional points. If only the static intensity spectrum is monitored, this transition remains unnoticed, as does the fact that the system is not truly in equilibrium. Non-Markovian effects due to the non-separability of system and reservoir timescales are shown to become important far away from equilibrium. Furthermore, we derive a novel photon-condensate Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which is capable of describing photo-molecular coherence. Such effects cannot be captured by existing theories and hence serve as a validation of our auxiliary-boson method. These results provide a building block to understanding the properties of the photon condensates in stationary operation where they act as fluctuating light sources. In the future, lattice systems of coupled photon condensates may lead to the appearance of novel driven-dissipative phases of light.