We propose a general numerical approach to open quantum systems with a coupling to bath degrees of freedom. The technique combines the methodology of polynomial expansions of spectral functions with the sparse grid concept from interpolation theory. Thereby we construct a Hilbert space of moderate dimension to represent the bath degrees of freedom, which allows us to perform highly accurate and efficient calculations of static, spectral and dynamic quantities using standard exact diagonalization algorithms. The strength of the approach is demonstrated for the phase transition, critical behaviour, and dissipative spin dynamics in the spin boson model
We report new results related to the two-time dynamics of the coordinate of a quantum free particle, damped through its interaction with a fractal thermal bath (non-ohmic coupling $\simω^δ$ with $0<δ<1$ or $1<δ<2)$. When the particle is localized, its position does not age. When it undergoes anomalous diffusion, only its displacement may be defined. It is shown to be an aging variable. The finite temperature aging regime is self-similar. It is described by a scaling function of the ratio ${t_w/τ}$ of the waiting time to the observation time, as characterized by an exponent directly linked to $…
By employing the spin-boson model in a dense limit of environmental modes, quantum entanglement and correlation of sub-Ohmic and Ohmic baths for dissipative quantum phase transitions are numerically investigated based on the variational principle. With several measures borrowed from quantum information theory, three different types of singularities are found for the first-order, second-order, and Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transitions, respectively, and the values of transition points and critical exponents are accurately determined. Besides, the scaling form of the quantum discord in the Ohmic…
We investigate the dynamics of a large anisotropic spin whose easy-axis component is coupled to a bosonic bath with a spectral function $J(\w)\propto ω^s$. Such a spin complex might be realized in a single-molecular magnet. Using the non-perturbative renormalization group, we calculate the line of quantum-phase transitions in the sub-ohmic regime ($s<1$). These quantum-phase transitions only occur for integer spin $J$. For half-integer $J$, the low temperature fixed-point is identical to the fixed-point of the spin-boson model without quantum-tunneling between the two levels. Short-time cohere…
The spin-boson model is studied by means of flow equations for Hamiltonians. Our truncation scheme includes all coupling terms which are linear in the bosonic operators. Starting with the canonical generator $η_c=[H_0,H]$ with $H_0$ resembling the non-interacting bosonic bath, the flow equations exhibit a universal attractor for the Hamiltonian flow. This allows to calculate equilibrium correlation functions for super-Ohmic, Ohmic and sub-Ohmic baths within a uniform framework including finite bias.
Employing the non-perturbative numerical renormalization group method, we study the dynamics of the spin-boson model, which describes a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with spectral density J(omega) propto omega^s. We show that, in contrast to the case of ohmic damping, the delocalized phase of the sub-ohmic model cannot be characterized by a single energy scale only, due to the presence of a non-trivial quantum phase transition. In the strongly sub-ohmic regime, s<<1, weakly damped coherent oscillations on short time scales are possible even in the localized phase - this is of cruc…
A continuous time cluster algorithm for two-level systems coupled to a dissipative bosonic bath is presented and applied to the sub-ohmic spin-Boson model. When the power s of the spectral function J(w) \propto w^s is smaller than 1/2, the critical exponents are found to be classical, mean-field like. Potential sources for the discrepancy with recent renormalization group predictions are traced back to the effect of a dangerously irrelevant variable.
We propose a general extended coherent state approach to the qubit (or fermion) and multi-mode boson coupling systems. The application to the spin-boson model with the discretization of a bosonic bath with arbitrary continuous spectral density is described in detail, and very accurate solutions can be obtained. The quantum phase transition in the nontrivial sub-Ohmic case can be located by the fidelity and the order-parameter critical exponents for the bath exponents $s<1/2$ can be correctly given by the fidelity susceptibility, demonstrating the strength of the approach.
The Davydov D1 ansatz, which assigns an individual bosonic trajectory to each spin state, is an efficient, yet extremely accurate trial state for time-dependent variation of the sub-Ohmic spin-boson model [J. Chem. Phys. 138, 084111 (2013)]. A surface hopping algorithm is developed employing the Davydov D1 ansatz to study the spin dynamics with a sub-Ohmic bosonic bath. The algorithm takes into account both coherent and incoherent dynamics of the population evolution in a unified manner, and compared with semiclassical surface hopping algorithms, hopping rates calculated in this work follow mo…
Thermodynamics of dissipative quantum systems with double-well potentials is studied by the path-integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) method without truncation to the two-state model. For efficient simulation at low temperatures, we develop a new scheme of local update based on approximate decomposition of the Boltzmann weight to the Gaussian distributions. Localization transition induced by ohmic dissipation is clarified numerically for arbitrary potential barriers.
Study of dissipative quantum phase transitions in the Ohmic spin-boson model is numerically challenging in a dense limit of environmental modes. In this work, large-scale numerical simulations are carried out based on the variational principle. The validity of variational calculations, spontaneous breakdown of symmetries, and quantum fluctuations and correlations in the Ohmic bath are carefully analyzed, and the critical coupling as well as exponents are accurately determined in the weak tunneling and continuum limits. In addition, quantum criticality of the Ohmic bath is uncovered both in the…
We study the spin-boson model (SBM) with two spins in staggered biases by a numerically exact method based on variational matrix product states. Several observables such as the magnetization, the entanglement entropy between the two spins and the bosonic environment, the ground-state energy, as well as the correlation function for two spins are calculated exactly. The characteristics of these observables suggest that the staggered biases can drive the 2nd-order quantum phase transition (QPT) to the 1st-order QPT in the sub-Ohmic SBM, while the Kosterlitz-Thouless QPT in the Ohmic SBM goes dire…
We study the time dynamics of the ohmic spin boson model at arbitrary bias $ε$ and small coupling $α$ to the bosonic bath. Using perturbation theory and the real-time renormalization group (RG) method we present a consistent zero-temperature weak-coupling expansion for the time evolution of the reduced density matrix one order beyond the Bloch-Redfield solution. We develop a renormalized perturbation theory and present an analytical solution covering the whole range from small to large times, including further results for exponentially small or large times. Resumming all secular terms in all o…
We study the renormalization group (RG) equations of a pair of spin-boson systems coupled in the z-direction with each other. Each spin is coupled to a different bath of harmonic oscillators. We introduce a systematic adiabatic RG, which generalizes the first-order adiabatic renormalization previously used for the single spin-boson model, and we obtain the flow equations for the tunneling constant, the dissipation strength and the inter-spin coupling up to third order in the tunneling. If one of the two spins is treated as a constant magnetization the other spin is described by a biased spin-b…
The deep sub-Ohmic spin-boson model shows a longstanding non-Markovian coherence at low temperature. Motivating to quench this robust coherence, the thermal effect is unitarily incorporated into the time evolution of the model, which is calculated by the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group algorithm combined with the orthogonal polynomials theory. Via introducing a unitary heating operator to the bosonic bath, the bath is heated up so that a majority portion of the bosonic excited states is occupied. It is found in this situation the coherence of the spin is quickly qu…
The dynamical critical exponent $z$ is a fundamental quantity in characterizing quantum criticality, and it is well known that the presence of dissipation in a quantum model has significant impact on the value of $z$. Studying quantum Ising spin models using Monte Carlo methods, we estimate the dynamical critical exponent $z$ and the correlation length exponent $ν$ for different forms of dissipation. For a two-dimensional quantum Ising model with Ohmic site dissipation, we find $z \approx 2$ as for the corresponding one-dimensional case, whereas for a one-dimensional quantum Ising model with O…
We revisit the critical behavior of the sub-ohmic spin-boson model. Analysis of both the leading and subleading terms in the temperature dependence of the inverse static local spin susceptibility at the quantum critical point, calculated using a numerical renormalization-group method, provides evidence that the quantum critical point is interacting in cases where the quantum-to-classical mapping would predict mean-field behavior. The subleading term is shown to be consistent with an w/T scaling of the local dynamical susceptibility, as is the leading term. The frequency and temperature depende…
The effective theories for many quantum phase transitions can be mapped onto those of classical transitions. Here we show that such a mapping fails for the sub-ohmic spin-boson model which describes a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath with power-law spectral density, J(omega) ~ omega^s. Using an epsilon expansion we prove that this model has a quantum transition controlled by an interacting fixed point at small s, and support this by numerical calculations. In contrast, the corresponding classical long-range Ising model is known to have an upper-critical dimension at s = 1/2, with mea…
The dissipative dynamics of a quantum bistable system coupled to a Ohmic heat bath is investigated beyond the spin-boson approximation. Within the path-integral approach to quantum dissipation, we propose an approximation scheme which exploits the separation of time scales between intra- and interwell (tunneling) dynamics. The resulting generalized master equation for the populations in a space localized basis enables us to investigate a wide range of temperatures and system-environment coupling strengths. A phase diagram in the coupling-temperature space is provided to give a comprehensive ac…
By means of a trial wave function, the multi-D$_1$ ansatz, extensive variational calculations with more than ten thousand parameters have been carried out to study quantum phase transitions in the ground states of a two-impurity system embedded in a common Ohmic bath of bosons. Quantum criticality in both the impurity system and the Ohmic bosonic bath is investigated with relevant transition points and critical exponents determined accurately. With the linear grid of the Ohmic spectral density, our numerical calculations produce a much better description of the ground states with lower energie…
We study the reduced dynamics of a spin (qubit) coupled to a spin-boson environment in the case of pure dephasing. We derive formal exact expressions which can be cast in terms of exact integro-differential master equations. We present results for a SB environment with ohmic dissipation at finite temperatures. For the special value of the ohmic damping strength K=1/2 the reduced dynamics is found in analytic form. For K<<1 we discuss the possibility of modulating the effect of the SB environment on the qubit. In particular we study the effect of the crossover to a slow environment dynamics, wh…
The application of Wilson's Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) method to dissipative quantum impurity models, in particular the sub-ohmic spin-boson model, has led to conclusions regarding the quantum critical behavior which are in disagreement with those from other methods and which are by now recognized as erroneous. The errors of NRG remained initially undetected because NRG delivered an internally consistent set of critical exponents satisfying hyperscaling. Here we discuss how the conspiracy of two errors - the Hilbert-space truncation error and the mass-flow error - could lead to this…
We discuss a particular source of error in the Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) method for quantum impurity problems, which is related to a renormalization of impurity parameters due to the bath propagator. At any step of the NRG calculation, this renormalization is only partially taken into account, leading to systematic variation of the impurity parameters along the flow. This effect can cause qualitatively incorrect results when studying quantum critical phenomena, as it leads to an implicit variation of the phase transition's control parameter as function of the temperature and thus t…
Classical-like formulas are given in order to evaluate thermal averages of observables belonging to a quantum nonlinear system with dissipation described by the Caldeira-Leggett model [Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 211 (1981); Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 149, 374 (1983)]. The underlying scheme is the pure-quantum self-consistent harmonic approximation, which leads to expressions with a Boltzmann factor involving an effective potential and with a Gaussian average. The latter describes the effect of the fluctuations of purely quantum origin. As an illustration we calculate the coordinate probability distribution f…
We study the equilibrium correlation function of the polaron-dressed tunnelling operator in the dissipative two-state system and compare the asymptoptic dynamics with that of the position correlations. For an Ohmic spectral density with the damping strength $K=1/2$, the correlation functions are obtained in analytic form for all times at any $T$ and any bias. For $K<1$, the asymptotic dynamics is found by using a diagrammatic approach within a Coulomb gas representation. At T=0, the tunnelling or coherence correlations drop as $t^{-2K}$, whereas the position correlations show universal decay $…
By employing the variational approach, density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), exact diagonalization as well as symmetry and mean-field analyses, the ground state properties of the two-bath spin boson model with simultaneous diagonal and off-diagonal coupling are systematically studied in the sub-Ohmic regime. A novel quantum phase transition from a doubly degenerate "localized phase" to the other doubly degenerate "delocalized phase" is uncovered. Via the multi-D1 ansatz as the variational wave function, transition points are determined accurately, consistent with the results from DMRG a…
The motion of a free quantum particle in a thermal environment is usually described by the quantum Langevin equation, where the effect of the bath is encoded through a dissipative and a noise term, related to each other via the fluctuation dissipation theorem. The quantum Langevin equation can be derived starting from a microscopic model of the thermal bath as an infinite collection of harmonic oscillators prepared in an initial equilibrium state. The spectral properties of the bath oscillators and their coupling to the particle determine the specific form of the dissipation and noise. Here we…
An exact and efficient new method to simulate dynamics in dissipative quantum systems is presented. A stochastic Liouville equation, deduced from Feynman and Vernon's path-integral expression of the reduced density matrix, is used to describe the exact dynamics at any dissipative strength and for arbitrarily low temperatures. The utility of the method is demonstrated by applications to a damped harmonic oscillator and a double-well system immersed in an Ohmic bath at low temperatures.
We discuss the behavior of a quantum glassy system coupled to a bath of quantum oscillators. We show that the system localizes in the absence of interactions when coupled to a subOhmic bath. When interactions are switched on localization disappears and the system undergoes a phase transition towards a glassy phase. We show that the position of the critical line separating the disordered and the ordered phases strongly depends on the coupling to the bath. For a given type of bath, the ordered glassy phase is favored by a stronger coupling. Ohmic, subOhmic and superOhmic baths lead to different …
We show that the low-frequency modes of a sub-Ohmic bosonic heat bath generate an effective dynamical asymmetry for an intrinsically symmetric quantum spin -1/2. An initially fully polarized spin first decays towards a quasiequilibrium determined by the dynamical asymmetry, thereby showing coherent damped oscillations on the (fast) time scale of the spin splitting. On top of this, the dynamical asymmetry itself decays on an ultraslow time scale and vanishes asymptotically since the global equilibrium phase is symmetric. We quantitatively study the nature of the initial fast decay to the quasie…
We present a detailed description of the recently proposed numerical renormalization group method for models of quantum impurities coupled to a bosonic bath. Specifically, the method is applied to the spin-boson model, both in the Ohmic and sub-Ohmic cases. We present various results for static as well as dynamic quantities and discuss details of the numerical implementation, e.g., the discretization of a bosonic bath with arbitrary continuous spectral density, the suitable choice of a finite basis in the bosonic Hilbert space, and questions of convergence w.r.t. truncation parameters. The met…
We study the zero temperature static properties of dissipative ensembles of quantum Ising spins arranged on periodic one dimensional finite clusters and on an infinite chain. The spins interact ferro-magnetically with nearest-neighbour pure and random couplings. They are subject to a transverse field and coupled to an Ohmic bath of quantum harmonic oscillators. We analyze the coupled system using Monte Carlo simulations of the classical two-dimensional counterpart model. The coupling to the bath enhances the extent of the ordered phase, as found in mean-field spin-glasses. In the case of finit…
We study the spin-boson model without the counterrotating terms by a numerically exact method based on variational matrix product states. Surprisingly, the second-order quantum phase transition (QPT) is observed for the sub-Ohmic bath in the rotating-wave approximations. Moreover, first-order QPTs can also appear before the critical points. With the decrease of the bath exponents, these first-order QPTs disappear successively, while the second-order QPT remains robust. The second-order QPT is further confirmed by multi-coherent-states variational studies, while the first-order QPT is corrobora…
We present an analytical strong-disorder renormalization group theory of the quantum phase transition in the dissipative random transverse-field Ising chain. For Ohmic dissipation, we solve the renormalization flow equations analytically, yielding asymptotically exact results for the low-temperature properties of the system. We find that the interplay between quantum fluctuations and Ohmic dissipation destroys the quantum critical point by smearing. We also determine the phase diagram and the behavior of observables in the vicinity of the smeared quantum phase transition.
We theoretically study the dipolar motion of bosonic atoms in a very shallow, strongly confined 1D optical lattice using the parameters of the recent experiment [Fertig et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 220402 (2005)]. We find that, due to momentum uncertainty, a small, but non-negligible, atom population occupies the unstable velocity region of the corresponding classical dynamics, resulting in the observed dissipative atom transport. This population is generated even in a static vapor, due to quantum fluctuations which are enhanced by the lattice and the confinement, and is not notably affected b…
The presence of symmetries in a closed many-body quantum system results in integrability. For such integrable systems, complete thermalization does not occur. As a result, the system remains non-ergodic. On the other hand, a set of non-interacting atoms connected to a regular bosonic bath thermalizes. Here, we show that such atoms in a spatially-correlated thermal bath can show both the behavior depending on the temperature. At zero temperature, the bath has a large correlation length, and hence it acts as a common environment. In this condition, a set of weak symmetries exist, which prevent t…
We investigate two prototypical dissipative bosonic systems under slow driving and arbitrary system-bath coupling strength, recovering their dynamic evolution as well as the heat and work rates, and we verify that thermodynamic laws are respected. Specifically, we look at the damped harmonic oscillator and the damped two-level system. For the former, we study independently the slow time- dependent perturbation in the oscillator frequency and in the coupling strength. For the latter, we concentrate on the slow modulation of the energy gap between the two levels. Importantly, we are able to find…
This is a work in two parts in which we show how to solve a large class of Lindblad master equations for non-interacting particles on $L$ sites. In part I we concentrate on bosonic particles. We show how to reduce the problem to diagonalizing an $L \times L$ non-Hermitian matrix. In particular, for boundary dissipative driving of a uniform chain, the matrix is a tridiagonal bordered Toeplitz matrix which can be solved analytically for the normal master modes and their relaxation rates (rapidities). In the regimes in which an analytical solution cannot be found, our approach can still provide a…
Environmental interaction is a fundamental consideration in any controlled quantum system. While interaction with a dissipative bath can lead to decoherence, it can also provide desirable emergent effects including induced spin-spin correlations. In this paper we show that under quite general conditions, a dissipative bosonic bath can induce a long-range ordered phase, without the inclusion of any additional direct spin-spin couplings. Through a quantum-to-classical mapping and classical Monte Carlo simulation, we investigate the $T=0$ quantum phase transition of an Ising chain embedded in a b…
The effectiveness of the variational approach a la Feynman is proved in the spin-boson model, i.e. the simplest realization of the Caldeira-Leggett model able to reveal the quantum phase transition from delocalized to localized states and the quantum dissipation and decoherence effects induced by a heat bath. After exactly eliminating the bath degrees of freedom, we propose a trial, non local in time, interaction between the spin and itself simulating the coupling of the two level system with the bosonic bath. It stems from an Hamiltonian where the spin is linearly coupled to a finite number o…
We analyze the static and dynamical properties of two Ising-coupled quantum spins embedded in a common bosonic bath as an archetype of dissipative quantum mechanics. First, we elucidate the ground state phase diagram for an ohmic and a subohmic bath using a combination of bosonic numerical renormalization group (NRG), analytical techniques and intuitive arguments. Second, employing the time-dependent NRG we investigate the system's rich dynamical behavior arising from the complex interplay between spin-spin and spin-bath interactions. Interestingly, spin oscillations can synchronize due to the…
In this review, we provide an introduction and overview to some more recent advances in real-time dynamics of quantum impurity models and their realizations in quantum devices. We focus on the Ohmic spin-boson and related models, which describes a single spin-1/2 coupled to an infinite collection of harmonic oscillators. The topics are largely drawn from our efforts over the past years, but we also present a few novel results. In the first part of this review, we begin with a pedagogical introduction to the real-time dynamics of a dissipative spin at both high and low temperatures. We then foc…
