The dynamics of an isolated quantum system is coherent and unitary. Weak coupling to the environment leads to decoherence, which is traditionally modeled with a Lindblad equation for the system's density matrix. Starting from a pure state, such a system approaches a steady state (mixed or otherwise) in an underdamped or overdamped manner. This transition occurs at an eigenvalue degeneracy of a Lindblad superoperator, called an exceptional point (EP), where corresponding eigenvectors coalesce. Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in creating exceptional points in a truly quantum domain, driven by the enhanced sensitivity and topological features EPs have shown in their classical realizations. Here, we present Floquet analysis of a prototypical qubit whose drive or dissipator strengths are varied periodically. We consider models with a single dissipator that generate global loss (phase damping) or mode-selective loss (spontaneous emission). In all cases, we find that periodic modulations lead to EP lines at small dissipator strengths, and a rich EP structure in the parameter space. Our analytical and numerical results show that extending Lindblad Liouvillians to the Floquet domain is a new, potentially preferred route to accessing exceptional points in the transient dynamics towards the Lindblad steady state.
For a closed system with periodic driving, Floquet theorem tells that the time evolution operator can be written as $ U(t,0)\equiv P(t)e^{\frac{-i}{\hbar}H_F t}$ with $P(t+T)=P(t)$, and $H_F$ is Hermitian and time-independent called Floquet Hamiltonian. In this work, we extend the Floquet theorem from closed systems to open systems described by a Lindblad master equation that is periodic in time. Lindbladian expansion in powers of $\frac 1 ω$ is derived, where $ω$ is the driving frequency. Two examples are presented to illustrate the theory. We find that appropriate trace preserving time-indep…
Floquet engineering of isolated systems is often based on the concept of the effective time-independent Floquet Hamiltonian, which describes the stroboscopic evolution of a periodically driven quantum system in steps of the driving period and which is routinely obtained analytically using high-frequency expansions. The generalization of these concepts to open quantum systems described by a Markovian master equation of Lindblad type turns out to be non-trivial: On the one hand, already for a two-level system two different phases can be distinguished, where the effective time-independent Floquet…
In this paper, the mathematical framework providing a description of completely positive and trace preserving dynamics of open quantum systems is addressed. Special case of time-dependent Lindbladian governed by periodic Hamiltonian is concerned. It is proven, that appropriate trace preserving dynamical map of such periodically driven system may be constructed by application of Floquet theory. Appropriate Lindbladian and Markovian master equation in weak coupling regime and resulting dynamical map are constructed. Some examples of application of developed technique are given.
The characterization of open quantum systems is a central and recurring problem for the development of quantum technologies. For time-independent systems, an (often unique) steady state describes the average physics once all the transient processes have faded out, but interesting quantum properties can emerge at intermediate timescales. Given a Lindblad master equation, these properties are encoded in the spectrum of the Liouvillian whose diagonalization, however, is a challenge even for small-size quantum systems. Here, we propose a new method to efficiently provide the Liouvillian spectral d…
The stroboscopic evolution of a time-periodically driven isolated quantum system can always be described by an effective time-independent Hamiltonian. Whether this concept can be generalized to open Floquet systems, described by a Markovian master equation with time-periodic Lindbladian generator, remains an open question. By using a two level system as a model, we explicitly show the existence of two well-defined parameter regions. In one region the stroboscopic evolution can be described by a Markovian master equation with a time-independent Floquet Lindbladian. In the other it cannot; but h…
We consider the Markovian Master Equation over matrix algebra $\mathbb{M}_d$, governed by periodic Lindbladian $L_t$ in standard (Kossakowski-Lindblad-Gorini-Sudarshan) form. It is shown that under simplifying assumption of commutativity, i.e. if $L_t L_{t'} = L_{t'}L_t$ for any moments of time $t,t'\in\mathbb{R}_+$, the Floquet normal form of resulting completely positive dynamical map is not guaranteed to be given by simultaneously globally Markovian maps. In fact, the periodic part of the solution is even shown to be necessarily non-Markovian. Two examples in algebra $\mathbb{M}_2$ are expl…
The operation of autonomous finite-time quantum heat engines rely on the existence of a stable limit cycle in which the dynamics becomes periodic. The two main questions that naturally arise are therefore whether such a limit cycle will eventually be reached and, once it has, what is the state of the system within the limit cycle. In this paper we show that the application of Floquet's theory to Lindblad dynamics offers clear answers to both questions. By moving to a generalized rotating frame, we show that it is possible to identify a single object, the Floquet Liouvillian, which encompasses …
Nonequilibrium steady states (NESSs) in periodically driven dissipative quantum systems are vital in Floquet engineering. We develop a general theory for high-frequency drives with Lindblad-type dissipation to characterize and analyze NESSs based on the high-frequency (HF) expansion with linear algebraic numerics and without numerically solving the time evolution. This theory shows that NESSs can deviate from the Floquet-Gibbs state depending on the dissipation type. We show the validity and usefulness of the HF-expansion approach in concrete models for a diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, …
Floquet-Magnus (FM) expansion theory is a powerful tool in periodically driven (Floquet) systems under high-frequency drives. In closed systems, it dictates that their stroboscopic dynamics under a time-periodic Hamiltonian is well captured by the FM expansion, which gives a static effective Hamiltonian. On the other hand, in dissipative systems driven by a time-periodic Liouvillian, it remains an important and nontrivial problem whether the FM expansion gives a static Liouvillian describing continuous-time Markovian dynamics, which we refer to as the Liouvillianity of the FM expansion. We ans…
Similar to its classical version, quantum Markovian evolution can be either time-discrete or time-continuous. Discrete quantum Markovian evolution is usually modeled with completely-positive trace-preserving maps while time-continuous evolution is often specified with superoperators referred to as "Lindbladians". Here we address the following question: Being given a quantum map, can we find a Lindbladian which generates an evolution identical -- when monitored at discrete instances of time -- to the one induced by the map? It was demonstrated that the problem of getting the answer to this ques…
We provide a comprehensive study of the energy transfer phenomenon -- populating a given energy level -- in 3- and 4-level quantum systems coupled to two thermal baths. In particular, we examine the effects of an external periodic driving and the coherence induced by the baths on the efficiency of the energy transfer. We consider the Floquet-Lindblad and the Floquet-Redfield scenarios, which both are in the Born-Markov, weak-coupling regime but differ in the treatment of the secular approximation, and for the latter, we develop an appropriate Floquet-type master equation by employing a partial…
Time-dependent Lindblad master equations have important applications in areas ranging from quantum thermodynamics to dissipative quantum computing. In this paper we outline a general method for writing down exact solutions of time-dependent Lindblad equations whose superoperators form closed algebras. We focus on the particular case of a single qubit and study the exact solution generated by both coherent and incoherent mechanisms. We also show that if the time-dependence is periodic, the problem may be recast in terms of Floquet theory. As an application, we give an exact solution for a two-l…
For adiabatically and periodically manipulated dissipative quantum systems we derive, using Floquet theory, a simple Markovian master equation. Contrary to some previous works we explicitly take into account the time dependence of the Hamiltonian and, therefore, obtain a master equation with a time-dependent dissipative part. We illustrate our theory with two examples and compare our results with the previously proposed master equations. In particular, we consider the problem of Cooper pair pumping and demonstrate the inadequacy of the secular (rotating wave) approximation when calculating the…
Confinement-Tunable Synthetic Gauge Fields and Floquet Topological Phenomena in a Driven Quantum Wire Qubit
University of Abomey-Calavi（阿博梅-卡利维大学）；University of Dschang（德尚大学）；Quantum Materials and Computing Group - QMaCG（量子材料与计算群 - QMaCG）；Instituteur principal de l’enseignement général, Délégation Régionale de l’Ouest, Délégation Départementale de la Menoua, Arrondissement de Nkong-Ni, École Publique de Batsing’la Chefferie, Bafou, Cameroun（喀麦隆巴富，班辛拉酋长国公立学校，孔克尼区，梅努瓦省教育厅，西部大区教育厅，普通教育首席教师）；University of Yaoundé I（雅温得第一大学）
We propose the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Lindbladian as a paradigmatic solvable model of dissipative many-body quantum chaos. It describes $N$ strongly coupled Majorana fermions with random all-to-all interactions, with unitary evolution given by a quartic Hamiltonian and the coupling to the environment described by $M$ quadratic jump operators, rendering the full Lindbladian quartic in the Majorana operators. Analytical progress is possible by developing a dynamical mean-field theory for the Liouvillian time evolution on the Keldysh contour. By disorder-averaging the interactions, we derive an (exact…
Laser technology has developed and accelerated photo-induced nonequilibrium physics from both scientific and engineering viewpoints. The Floquet engineering, i.e., controlling material properties and functionalities by time-periodic drives, is a forefront of quantum physics of light-matter interaction, but limited to ideal dissipationless systems. For the Floquet engineering extended to a variety of materials, it is vital to understand the quantum states emerging in a balance of the periodic drive and energy dissipation. Here we derive the general description for nonequilibrium steady states (…
A Nonrecursive Lindblad Quantization of Dissipative Polynomial Dynamics
Hebei University（河北大学）；Hebei Key Laboratory of High-Precision Computation and Application of Quantum Field Theory（河北省量子场论高精度计算与应用重点实验室）；Hebei Research Center of the Basic Discipline for Computational Physics（河北省计算物理学基础学科研究中心）
With a specific choice of laser parameters resulting into a so-called exceptional point in the wavelength-intensity plane, it is possible to produce the coalescence of two Floquet resonances describing the photodissociation of the molecule Na$_2$, which is one of the candidates for molecular cooling. Appropriately tuning laser parameters, following a contour around the exceptional point, the resonances exchange their labels. This represents a laser control of the vibrational transfer from one field-free state to another, through an adiabatic transport involving these resonances. The proportion…
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional de Rosario（罗萨里奥国立大学精确科学、工程与测量学院）；Instituto de Física Rosario (CONICET)（罗萨里奥物理研究所（CONICET））；Centro Atómico Bariloche（巴里洛切原子中心）；Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología CONICET-CNEA（CONICET-CNEA纳米科学与纳米技术研究所）；Instituto Balseiro（巴尔塞罗研究所）
What is the fate of an oscillator when its inductance and capacitance are varied while its frequency is kept constant? Inspired by this question, we propose a protocol to implement parity-time (PT) symmetry in a lone oscillator. Different forms of constrained variations lead to static, periodic, or arbitrary balanced gain and loss profiles, that can be interpreted as purely imaginary gauge fields. With a state-of-the-art, dynamically tunable LC oscillator comprising synthetic circuit elements, we demonstrate static and Floquet PT breaking transitions, including those at vanishingly small gain …
Minimal, open quantum systems that are governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians have been realized across multiple platforms in the past two years. Here we investigate the dynamics of open systems with Hermitian or anti-Hermitian Hamiltonians, both of which can be implemented in such platforms. For a single system subject to unitary and thermal dynamics in a periodic manner, we show that the corresponding Floquet Hamiltonian has a rich phase diagram with numerous exceptional-point (EP) degeneracy contours. This protocol can be used to realize a quantum Hatano-Nelson model that is characterized b…
Describing dynamics of quantum many-body systems is a formidable challenge due to rapid generation of quantum entanglement between remote degrees of freedom. A promising approach to tackle this challenge, which has been proposed recently, is to characterize the quantum dynamics of a many-body system and its properties as a bath via the Feynman-Vernon influence matrix (IM), which is an operator in the space of time trajectories of local degrees of freedom. Physical understanding of the general scaling of the IM's temporal entanglement and its relation to basic dynamical properties is highly inc…
