In this work, we perform a careful study of an special arrangement of coupled systems that consists of two external harmonic oscillators weakly coupled to an arbitrary network (data bus) of strongly interacting oscillators. Our aim is to establish simple effective Hamiltonians and Liouvillians allowing an accurate description of the dynamics of the external oscillators regardless the topology of the network. By simple we mean an effective description using just a few degrees of freedom. In order to do that, we employed the machinery of symplectic formalism to generalize and expand the ideas presented in [1], where the specific case of an isolated (no thermal baths) chain is treated. With the methodology developed here, we are able to treat general topologies and, under certain structural conditions, to also include the interaction with external environments. In order to illustrate the predictability of the simplified dynamics, we present a comparative study with the predictions of the numerically obtained exact description in the context of propagation of energy through the network.
We study the dissipative quantum harmonic oscillator with general non-thermal preparations of the harmonic oscillator bath. The focus is on equilibration of the oscillator in the long-time limit and the additional requirements for thermalization. Our study is based on the exact solution of the microscopic model obtained by means of operator equations of motion, which provides us with the time evolution of the central oscillator density matrix in terms of the propagating function. We find a hierarchy of conditions for thermalization, together with the relation of the asymptotic temperature to t…
In this paper, we want to improved the calculations of the thermodynamic quantities of the relativistic Harmonic oscillator using the Hurwitz zeta function. The comparison of our results with those obtained by a method based on the Euler-MacLaurin approach has been made.
The time evolution of thermal states of a mirror released from a tight harmonic trap is studied. After the release no dissipation is assumed to be present and the mirror is, after a time delay, kicked into a momentum superposition state. The thermal character of the initial state washes out the telltale interference patterns of the superposition but no loss of coherence is found. This investigation resolves a controversy about decoherence--without--dissipation and shows that entrained measurements can be surprisingly insensitive to temperature effects.
We present a method for the direct measurement of the Wigner characteristic function of a thermalizing harmonic oscillator that is completely inaccessible for control or measurement. The strategy employs a recently proposed probe-measurement-based scheme [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 110406 (2019)] which relies on the pulsed control of a two-level probe. We generalize this scheme to the case of a nonunitary time evolution of the target harmonic oscillator, describing its thermalization through contact to a finite-temperature environment, given in the form of a Lindblad master equation. This generaliz…
We investigate the entanglement properties of thermal states of the harmonic lattice in one, two and three dimensions. We establish the value of the critical temperature for entanglement between neighbouring sites and give physical reasons. Further sites are shown to be entangled only due to boundary effects. Other forms of entanglement are addressed in the second part of the paper by using the energy as witness of entanglement. We close with a comprehensive diagram showing the different phases of entanglement versus complete separability and propose techniques to swap and tune entanglement ex…
We derive explicitly the thermal state of the two coupled harmonic oscillator system when the spring and coupling constants are arbitrarily time-dependent. In particular, we focus on the case of sudden change of frequencies. In this case we compute purity function, Rényi and von Neumann entropies, and mutual information analytically and examine their temperature-dependence. We also discuss on the thermal entanglement phase transition by making use of the negativity-like quantity. Our calculation shows that the critical temperature $T_c$ increases with increasing the difference between the init…
We study a quantum harmonic oscillator undergoing thermalization. To describe the thermalization process, we generalize the Ermakov-Lewis-Riesenfeld (ELR) invariant method for the oscillator. After imposing appropriate conditions on the thermalization process, we introduce an ansatz equation that describes the time evolution effectively. We write down the first law for thermalization in the same form as that for ordinary thermodynamics. Here, the thermalization effect appears through a change of the ELR frequency. Finally, we obtain the oscillator's energy undergoing thermalization as a functi…
The Rényi and von Neumann entropies of the thermal state in the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP)-corrected single harmonic oscillator system are explicitly computed within the first order of the GUP parameter $α$. While the von Neumann entropy with $α= 0$ exhibits a monotonically increasing behavior in external temperature, the nonzero GUP parameter makes the decreasing behavior of the von Neumann entropy at the large temperature region. As a result, the von Neumann entropy is maximized at the finite temperature if $α\neq 0$. The Rényi entropy $S_γ$ with nonzero $α$ also exhibits simila…
We discuss the positional fluctuations of a quantum harmonic oscillator in a heat bath. Analytic expressions are given for the probability distribution functions of the oscillator position in general and limiting (classical and ground state) cases.
Dirac's Poisson-bracket-to-commutator analogy for the transition from classical to quantum mechanics assures that for many systems, the classical and quantum systems share the same algebraic structure. The quantum side of the analogy (involving operators on Hilbert space with commutators scaled by Planck's constant $\hbar$) not only gives the algebraic structure but also dictates the average values of physical quantities in the quantum ground state. On the other hand, the Poisson brackets of nonrelativistic mechanics, which give only the classical canonical transformations, do not give any val…
We analyze the performance of a quantum Otto cycle, employing time-dependent harmonic oscillator as the working fluid undergoing sudden expansion and compression strokes during the adiabatic stages, coupled to a squeezed reservoir. First, we show that the maximum efficiency that our engine can achieve is 1/2 only, which is in contrast with the earlier studies claiming unit efficiency under the effect of squeezed reservoir. Then, we obtain analytic expressions for the upper bound on the efficiency as well as on the coefficient of performance of the Otto cycle. The obtained bounds are independen…
Supersymmetry breaking of a supersymmetric harmonic oscillator with polynomial interaction is analyzed. Some thermal effects are studied in the context of Thermo Field Dynamics (TFD). The restored supersymmetry results in non vanishing energy at finite temperatures due the additivity of the thermal effects, while at $T=0$ the energy is zero.
In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems, we determine the degree of quantum decoherence of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a thermal bath. It is found that the system manifests a quantum decoherence which is more and more significant in time. We also calculate the decoherence time and show that it has the same scale as the time after which thermal fluctuations become comparable with quantum fluctuations.
Quantum and Thermal Properties of the Klein-Gordon Inverted Harmonic Oscillator with Physical Applications
Escuela de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Matemáticas, Universidad de El Salvador（萨尔瓦多大学自然科学与数学学院物理系）；Laboratoire de Physique Quantique et Syst‘emes Dynamiques, Facult´e des Sciences, Ferhat Abbas S´etif 1（费拉特·阿巴斯塞蒂夫1大学理学院量子物理与动力系统实验室）
We provide an explicit analytical calculation that shows the asymptotic approach of the one dimensional Caldeira-Leggett model to thermal equilibrium in the high temperature and weak coupling limit. We investigate a free particle and a harmonic oscillator system, using both the Lindblad and the non-Lindblad type master equations for each case, and show that thermal equilibrium is reached exactly for the free particle and aproximately for the harmonic oscillator, irrespective of the initial preparation of the system. We also generalize our calculation to higher dimensions.
Entanglement pre-thermalization (EP) is a quasi-stationary nonequilibrium state of a composite system in which each individual subsystem looks thermal but the entire system remains nonthermal due to quantum entanglement between subsystems. We theoretically study the dynamics of EP following a coherent split of a one-dimensional harmonic potential in which two interacting bosons are confined. This problem is equivalent to that of an interaction quench between two harmonic oscillators. We show that this simple model captures the bare essentials of EP; that is, each subsystem relaxes to an approx…
We consider the problem of broadcasting quantum information encoded in the displacement parameter for an harmonic oscillator, from N to M>N copies of a thermal state. We show the Weyl-Heisenberg covariant broadcasting map that optimally reduces the thermal photon number, and we prove that it minimizes the noise in conjugate quadratures at the output for general input states. We find that from two input copies broadcasting is feasible, with the possibility of simultaneous purification (superbroadcasting).
In the present paper we study the entanglement properties of thermal (a.k.a. Gibbs) states of quantum harmonic oscillator systems as functions of the Hamiltonian and the temperature. We prove the physical intuition that at sufficiently high temperatures the thermal state becomes fully separable and we deduce bounds on the critical temperature at which this happens. We show that the bound becomes tight for a wide class of Hamiltonians with sufficient translation symmetry. We find, that at the crossover the thermal energy is of the order of the energy of the strongest normal mode of the system a…
In this communication we investigate the quantum statistics of three harmonic oscillators mutually interacting with each other considering the modes are initially in Fock states. After solving the equations of motion, the squeezing phenomenon, sub-Poissonian statistics and quasiprobability functions are discussed. We demonstrate that the interaction is able to produce squeezing of different types. We show also that certain types of Fock states can evolve in this interaction into thermal state and squeezed thermal state governed by the interaction parameters.
Harmonic oscillator chains connecting two harmonic reservoirs at different constant temperatures cannot act as thermal diodes, irrespective of structural asymmetry. However, here we prove that perfectly harmonic junctions can rectify heat once the reservoirs (described by white Langevin noise) are placed under temperature gradients, which are asymmetric at the two sides, an effect that we term "temperature-gradient harmonic oscillator diodes". This nonlinear diode effect results from the additional constraint -- the imposed thermal gradient at the boundaries. We demonstrate the rectification b…
Dynamical phases are obtained for a quantum thermal engine, whose working medium is a single harmonic oscillator. The dynamics of this engine is obtained by using four steps where in two steps the time dependent frequency is changing. In the other two steps, the thermal engine is coupled alternatively to hot and cold heat baths. Similar dynamical phases are obtained in a quantum thermal engine whose working medium is spin 1/2 system. The role of times durations of such steps in the quantum engines for getting maximal efficiency is analyzed. The dynamic of charge pumping in a quantum dot couple…
The nonzero ground-state energy of the quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator implies quantum fluctuations around the minimum of the potential with the mean square value proportional to Planck's constant. In classical mechanics thermal fluctuations occur when the oscillator is coupled to a heat bath of temperature $T$. At finite temperature quantum statistical mechanics allows the description of the transition from pure quantum fluctuations at $T=0$ to classical thermal fluctuations in the high temperature limit. It was early pointed out by Peierls that the mean square thermal fluctuations in …
The physics of quantum electromagnetism in an absorbing medium is that of a field of damped harmonic oscillators. Yet until recently the damped harmonic oscillator was not treated with the same kind of formalism used to describe quantum electrodynamics in a arbitrary medium. Here we use the techniques of macroscopic QED, based on the Huttner--Barnett reservoir, to describe the quantum mechanics of a damped oscillator. We calculate the thermal and zero-point energy of the oscillator for a range of damping values from zero to infinity. While both the thermal and zero-point energies decrease with…
In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems, a master equation for the quantum harmonic oscillator interacting with a dissipative environment, in particular with a thermal bath, is derived for the case when the interaction is based on deformed algebra. The equations of motion for observables strongly depend on the deformation function. The expectation values of the number operator and squared number operator are calculated in the limit of a small deformation parameter for the case of zero temperature of the thermal bath. The steady state solution of the equation for the de…
We analyze in full detail the time evolution of an open Gaussian quantum system rapidly bombarded by Gaussian ancillae. As a particular case this analysis covers the thermalization (or not) of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a thermal reservoir made of harmonic oscillators. We derive general results for this scenario and apply them to the problem of thermalization. We show that only a particular family of system-environment couplings will cause the system to thermalize to the temperature of its environment. We discuss that if we want to understand thermalization as ensuing from the Markovian …
A geometry-based mechanism for generating steady-state internal circulation of local thermal currents is demonstrated by harmonically coupled quantum oscillators formulated by the Redfield quantum master equation (RQME) and the Bose Hubbard model (BHM) of phonons formulated by the Lindblad quantum master equation (LQME) using the simple multi-path geometry of a triangle. Driven by two reservoirs at different temperatures, both systems can exhibit an atypical local thermal current flowing against the total current. However, the total thermal current behaves normally. While the RQME of harmonica…
We address the problem of heat transport in a chain of coupled quantum harmonic oscillators, exposed to the influences of local environments of various nature, stressing the effects that the specific nature of the environment has on the phenomenology of the transport process. We study in detail the behavior of thermodynamically relevant quantities such as heat currents and mean energies of the oscillators, establishing rigorous analytical conditions for the existence of a steady state, whose features we analyse carefully. In particular we assess the conditions that should be faced to recover t…
In this paper it is studied the influence of a minimal thermal environment on the dynamics of a quantum harmonic oscillator (labelled A), prepared in a coherent state. The environment itself consists of a second oscillator (labelled B), initially in a thermal state. Two types of interaction Hamiltonians are considered, and the time-evolution of the reduced density operator of oscillator A is compared to the one obtained from the usual master equation approach, i.e., assuming that oscillator A is coupled to a large reservoir. An analysis of the linear entropy evolution of oscillator A shows tha…
In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems, we derive closed analytical expressions of the Heisenberg and Schrödinger generalized uncertainty functions for a particle moving in a harmonic oscillator potential. The particle is initially in an arbitrary correlated coherent state, and interacts with an environment at finite temperature. We describe how the quantum and thermal fluctuations contribute to the uncertainties in the canonical variables of the system and analyze the relative importance of these fluctuations in the evolution of the system. We show that upon contact …
We study the effect of Kerr nonlinearity in quantum thermal machines having a Kerr-nonlinear oscillator as working substance and operating under the ideal quantum Otto cycle. We first investigate the efficiency of a Kerr-nonlinear heat engine and show that by varying the Kerr-nonlinear strength the efficiency surpasses in up to 2.5 times the efficiency of a quantum harmonic oscillator Otto engine. Moreover, the Kerr-nonlinearity makes the coefficient of performance of the Kerr-nonlinear refrigerator to be as large as 3 times the performance of quantum harmonic oscillator Otto refrigerators. Th…
We examine the entanglement induced by an angular momentum coupling between two harmonic systems. The Hamiltonian corresponds to that of a charged particle in a uniform magnetic field in an anisotropic quadratic potential, or equivalently, to that of a particle in a rotating quadratic potential. We analyze both the vacuum and thermal entanglement, obtaining analytic expressions for the entanglement entropy and negativity through the gaussian state formalism. It is shown that vacuum entanglement diverges at the edges of the dynamically stable sectors, increasing with the angular momentum and sa…
We investigate the transport of phonons between $N$ harmonic oscillators in contact with independent thermal baths and coupled to a common oscillator, and derive an expression for the steady state heat flow between the oscillators in the weak coupling limit. We apply these results to an optomechanical array consisting of a pair of mechanical resonators coupled to a single quantised electromagnetic field mode by radiation pressure as well as to thermal baths with different temperatures. In the weak coupling limit this system is shown to be equivalent to two mutually-coupled harmonic oscillators…
The study of quantum thermodynamics is key to the development of quantum thermal machines. In contrast to most of the previous proposals based on discrete strokes, here we consider a working substance that is permanently coupled to two or more baths at different temperatures and continuously driven. To this end, we investigate parametrically driven quantum harmonic oscillators coupled to heat baths via a collision model. Using a thermodynamically consistent local master equation, we derive the heat flows and power of the working device which can operate as an engine, refrigerator or accelerato…
We consider a thermal quantum harmonic oscillator weakly coupled to a heat bath at a different temperature. We analytically study the quantum heat exchange statistics between the two systems using the quantum-optical master equation. We exactly compute the characteristic function of the heat distribution and show that it verifies the Jarzynski-Wójcik fluctuation theorem. We further evaluate the heat probability density in the limit of long thermalization times, both in the low and high temperature regimes, and investigate its time evolution by calculating its first two cumulants.
I formulate a quantum stochastic thermodynamics for the quantum trajectories of a continuously-monitored forced harmonic oscillator coupled to a thermal reservoir. Consistent trajectory-dependent definitions are introduced for work, heat, and entropy, through engineering the thermal reservoir from a sequence of two-level systems. Within this formalism the connection between irreversibility and entropy production is analyzed and confirmed by proving a detailed fluctuation theorem for quantum trajectories. Finally, possible experimental verifications are discussed.
This preprint contains the English translation of the paper "Relaxation dynamics of a quantum chain of harmonic oscillators", which was published by the author in 1980 in the Ukrainian Physical Journal. Comments describing its motivations, background ideas and results are presented as well. This paper addressed to the problem of approach to the thermal equilibrium in an isolated macroscopic quantum system, which was studied on the example of the quantum chain of weakly interacting harmonic oscillators. In the initial state, macroscopic energy was supplied to one oscillator (atom) in the chain.…
We consider the thermal aspect of a system composed of two coupled harmonic oscillators and study the corresponding purity. We initially consider a situation where the system is brought to a canonical thermal equilibrium with a heat-bath at temperature $T$. We adopt the path integral approach and introduce the evolution operator to calculate the density matrix and subsequently the reduced matrix density. It is used to explicitly determine the purity in terms of different physical quantities and therefore study some limiting cases related to temperature as well as other parameters. Different nu…
We propose a feasible and effective approach to study quantum thermal transport through anharmonic systems. The main idea is to obtain an {\it effective} harmonic Hamiltonian for the anharmonic system by applying the self-consistent phonon theory. Using the effective harmonic Hamiltonian we study thermal transport within the framework of nonequilibrium Green's function method using the celebrated Caroli formula. We corroborate our quantum self-consistent approach using the quantum master equation that can deal with anharmonicity exactly, but is limited to the weak system-bath coupling regime. …
We study the influence of a thermal environment on a non-adiabatic spin-flip driving protocol of spin-orbit qubits. The driving protocol operates by moving the qubit, trapped in a harmonic potential, along a nanowire in the presence of a time-dependent spin-orbit interaction. We consider the harmonic degrees of freedom to be weakly coupled to a thermal bath. We find an analytical expression for the Floquet states and derive the Lindblad equation for a strongly non-adiabatically driven qubit. The Lindblad equation corrects the dynamics of an isolated qubit with Lamb shift terms and a dissipativ…
We study a system of few fermions in a one-dimensional harmonic trap, and focus on the case of dipolar majority particles in contact with a single impurity. The impurity is used both for quenching the system, and for tracking the system evolution after the quench. Employing exact diagonalization, we investigate relaxation and thermalization properties. In the absence of dipolar interactions, the system is near integrability, and the dynamics remains oscillatory even on long time scales. On the other hand, repulsive as well as attractive dipolar interactions lead to quick relaxation to the diag…
Exponential growth of thermal out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) is an indicator of a possible gravity dual, and a simple toy quantum model showing the growth is being looked for. We consider a system of two harmonic oscillators coupled nonlinearly with each other, and numerically observe that the thermal OTOC grows exponentially in time. The system is well-known to be classically chaotic, and is a reduction of Yang-Mills-Higgs theory. The exponential growth is certified because the growth exponent (quantum Lyapunov exponent) of the thermal OTOC is well matched with the classical Lyapunov exp…
We study two entropies of a system composed of two coupled harmonic oscillators which is brought to a canonical thermal equilibrium with a heat-bath at temperature $T$. Using the purity function, we explicitly determine the Rényi and van Newmon entropies in terms of different physical parameters. We will numerically analyze these two entropies under suitable conditions and show their relevance.
We consider a particle in the approximation of a harmonic oscillator, coupled linearly to a field modeling an environment. The field is described by an infinite set of harmonic oscillators, and the system (particle--field) is considered in a cavity at thermal equilibrium. We employ the notions of bare and dressed coordinates to study the time evolution of the occupation number. With dressed coordinates no renormalization procedure is required, leading directly to a finite result. In particular, for a large time, the occupation number of the particle becomes independent of its initial value. So…
We provide a detailed examination of a thermal out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) growing exponentially in time in systems without chaos. The system is a one-dimensional quantum mechanics with a potential whose part is an inverted harmonic oscillator. We numerically observe the exponential growth of the OTOC when the temperature is higher than a certain threshold. The Lyapunov exponent is found to be of the order of the classical Lyapunov exponent generated at the hilltop, and it remains non-vanishing even at high temperature. We adopt various shape of the potential and find these features un…
An atom, coupled linearly to an environment, is considered in a harmonic approximation in thermal equilibrium inside a cavity. The environment is modeled by an infinite set of harmonic oscillators. We employ the notion of dressed states to investigate the time evolution of the atom initially in the first excited level. In a very large cavity (free space) for a long elapsed time, the atom decays and the value of its occupation number is the physically expected one at a given temperature. For a small cavity the excited atom never completely decays and the stability rate depends on temperature.
Recently, model systems with quadratic Hamiltonians and time-dependent interactions were studied by Briegel and Popescu and by Galve et al. in order to consider the possibility of both quantum refrigeration in enzymes [Proc. R. Soc. 469 20110290 (2013)] and entanglement in the high temperature limit [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 180501 (2010); Phys. Rev. A 81 062117 (2010)]. Following this line of research, we studied a model comprising two quantum harmonic oscillators driven by a time-dependent harmonic coupling. Such a system was embedded in a thermal bath represented in two different ways. In one c…
