This article aims to study the existence of stable Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling in a non-Hermitian system when exposed to external fields. We investigate a non-Hermitian $\cal{PT}$-symmetric diamond chain network and its transport dynamics in two different situations, namely in a flat band case and a non-flat band case. The considered system does not support unbroken-$\cal{PT}$ phase or completely real eigenspectra in any of the parametric regions in both the flat and non-flat band cases. In the flat band case, up to a critical value of the gain-loss parameter, the bands are found to be gapless or inseparable, and for other values the bands are isolated. Considering the non-flat band case, all the bands are found to be complex dispersive and are also isolated. In the case of completely broken $\cal{PT}$ phase, we look upon the possibility to have stable dynamics or Bloch oscillations upon the application of external fields like synthetic electric field. In particular, when the complex bands are isolated, we point out that the Landau-Zener tunneling induced by the synthetic electric field can enable Bloch oscillations. The amplitude of these Bloch oscillations is large and persists for a long propagation distance which reveals that super Bloch oscillations can be observed in the broken $\cal{PT}$ phase of the system. We also report the amplified Bloch oscillations which pave the way towards controlling transport phenomena in non-Hermitian systems.
We experimentally investigate a discrete time quantum walk in a system of coupled fiber loops and observe typical phenomena known from the wave propagation in periodic structures as ballistic spreading or an oscillation between two internal quantum states similar to Zitterbewegung (trembling motion). If a position-dependent phase gradient is applied we find localization and Bloch oscillations of the field for moderate as well as Landau-Zener tunneling for strong phase gradients.
Non-Bloch band theory describes bulk energy spectra and topological invariants in non-Hermitian crystals with open boundaries, where the bulk eigenstates are squeezed toward the edges (skin effect). However, the interplay of non-Bloch band theory, skin effect and coherent Bloch dynamics is so far unexplored. In two-band non-Hermitian lattices, it is shown here that collapse of non-Bloch bands and skin modes deeply changes the Bloch dynamics under an external force. In particular, for resonance forcing non-Bloch band collapse results in Wannier-Stark ladder coalescence and chiral Zener tunnelin…
Stimulated by the experimental realization of spin-dependent tunneling via gradient magnetic field [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 225301 (2013); Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 185301 (2013)], we investigate dynamics of Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling of single spin-half particles in a periodic potential under the influence of a spin-dependent constant force. In analogy to the Wannier-Stark system, we call our system as the Wannier-Zeeman system. If there is no coupling between the two spin states, the system can be described by two crossing Wannier-Stark ladders with opposite tilts. The spatial c…
Bloch-Zener oscillations (BZO), i.e. the interplay between Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling in two-band lattices under an external dc force, are ubiquitous in different areas of wave physics, including photonics. While in Hermitian systems such oscillations are rather generally aperiodic and only accidentally periodic, in non-Hermitian (NH) lattices BZO can show a transition from aperiodic to periodic as a NH parameter in the system is varied. Remarkably, the phase transition can be either smooth or sharp, contrary to other types of NH phase transitions which are universally sharp. A dis…
Cold atoms in an optical lattice execute Bloch-Zener oscillations when they are accelerated. We have performed a theoretical investigation into the case when the optical lattice is the intra-cavity field of a driven Fabry-Perot resonator. When the atoms oscillate inside the resonator, we find that their back-action modulates the phase and intensity of the light transmitted through the cavity. We solve the coupled atom-light equations self-consistently and show that, remarkably, the Bloch period is unaffected by this back-action. The transmitted light provides a way to observe the oscillation c…
Quantum walks are processes that model dynamics in coherent systems. Their experimental implementations proved key to unveil novel phenomena in Floquet topological insulators. Here we realize a photonic quantum walk in the presence of a synthetic gauge field, which mimics the action of an electric field on a charged particle. By tuning the energy gaps between the two quasi-energy bands, we investigate intriguing system dynamics characterized by the interplay between Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener transitions. When both gaps at quasi-energy values 0 and $π$ are vanishingly small, the Floqu…
The Lieb Lattice exhibits intriguing properties that are of general interest in both the fundamental physics and practical applications. Here, we investigate the topological Landau-Zener Bloch oscillation in a photonic Floquet Lieb lattice, where the dimerized helical waveguides is constructed to realize the synthetic spin-orbital interaction through the Floquet mechanism, rendering us to study the impacts of topological transition from trivial gaps to non-trivial ones. The compact localized states of flat bands supported by the local symmetry of Lieb lattice will be associated with other band…
We investigate the Landau-Zener transition in two- and three- level systems subject to a classical Gaussian noise. Two complementary limits of the noise being fast and slow compared to characteristic Landau-Zener tunnel times are discussed. The analytical solution of a density matrix (Bloch) equation is given for a long time asymptotic of transition probability. It is demonstrated that the transition probability induced/assisted by the fast noise can be obtained through a procedure of {\it Bloch's equation averaging} with further reduction it to a master equation. In contrast to the case of fa…
We systematically investigate the non-Hermitian generalisations of the Landau-Zener (LZ) transition and the Landau-Zener-Stückelberg (LZS) interferometry. The LZ transition probabilities, or band populations, are calculated for a generic non-Hermitian model and their asymptotic behaviour analysed. We then focus on non-Hermitian systems with a real adiabatic parameter and study the LZS interferometry formed out of two identical avoided level crossings. Four distinctive cases of interferometry are identified and the analytic formulae for the transition probabilities are calculated for each case.…
We study the dynamics of strongly repulsive Bose gas in tilted or driven bichromatic optical lattices. Using the Bose-Fermi mapping and exact numerical method, we calculate the reduced single-particle density matrices, and study the dynamics of density profile, momentum distribution and condensate fraction. We show the oscillating and breathing mode of dynamics, and depletion of condensate for short time dynamics. For long time dynamics, we clearly show the reconstruction of system at integer multiples of Bloch-Zener time. We also show how to achieve clear Bloch oscillation and Landau-Zener tu…
We report new oscillations of wavepackets in quantum walks subjected to electric fields, that decorate the usual Bloch-Zener oscillations of insulators. The number of turning points (or sub-oscillations) within one Bloch period of these oscillations is found to be governed by the winding of the quasienergy spectrum. Thus, this provides a new physical manifestation of a topological property of periodically driven systems that can be probed experimentally. Our model, based on an oriented scattering network, is readily implementable in photonic and cold atomic setups.
We study the dynamics of the Rabi Hamiltonian in the medium coupling regime with $\left\vert g/ω\right\vert \sim 0.07$, where $g$ is atom-field coupling constant, $ω$ is the field frequency, for the quantum state with average photon number $\bar{n}\sim 10^{4}$. We map the original Hamiltonian to an effective one, which describes a tight-binding chain subjected to a staggered linear potential. It is shown that the photon probability distribution of a Gaussian-type state exhibits the amplitude modulated Bloch oscillation (BO), which is a superposition of two conventional BOs with a half-BO-perio…
We study the dynamics of a quantum two state system driven through an avoided crossing under the influence of a super Ohmic environment, i.e. a longitudinal as well as a transversal one. The crossing time window, in which relaxation influences the dynamics, is centered around the avoided crossing. We determine the dynamics and the Landau-Zener probability employing the numerical exact quasi-adiabatic path integral. At weak coupling we show that the numerically less demanding nonequilibrium Bloch equations provide an accurate description. The crossing time depends strongly not only on the syste…
We study the dynamics of bound pairs in the extended Hubbard model driven by a linear external field. It is shown that two interacting bosons or singlet fermions with nonzero on-site and nearest-neighbor interaction strengths can always form bound pairs in the absence of an external field. There are two bands of bound pairs, one of which may have incomplete wave vectors when it has an overlap with the scattering band, referred to as an imperfect band. In the presence of the external field, the dynamics of the bound pair in the perfect band exhibits distinct Bloch-Zener oscillation (BZO), while…
We present the model of one-dimensional chain of two-level artificial atoms driven with dc field and quantum light simultaneously in strong coupling regime. The interaction of atoms with light leads to entanglement of electron and photon states (dressing of the atoms). The driving via dc field leads to the Bloch oscillations (BO) in the chain of dressed atoms. We considered the mutual influence of dressing and BO and show that scenario of oscillations dramatically differs from predicted by the Jaynes-Cummings and Bloch-Zener models. We study the evolution of the population inversion, tunneling…
We identify a new type of periodic evolution that appears in driven quantum systems. Provided that the instantaneous (adiabatic) energies are equidistant we show how such systems can be mapped to (time-dependent) tilted single-band lattice models. Having established this mapping, the dynamics can be understood in terms of Bloch oscillations in the instantaneous energy basis. In our lattice model the site-localized states are the adiabatic ones, and the Bloch oscillations manifest as a periodic repopulation among these states, or equivalently a periodic change in the system's instantaneous ener…
We theoretically investigate the dynamics of a spin-qubit periodically driven in both longitudinal and transverse directions by two classical fields respectively a radio-frequency (RF) and a microwave (MW) field operating at phase difference $ϕ$. The qubit is simultaneously locally subject to a linearly polarized magnetic field which changes its sign at a degeneracy point in the longitudinal direction and remains constant in the transverse direction. We superimpose the RF and MW signals respectively to the longitudinal and transverse components of the magnetic field. The proposed model may be …
We propose a universal analytical method to study the dynamics of a multi-anticrossing system subject to driving by one single large-amplitude triangle pulse, within its time scales smaller than the dephasing time. Our approach can explain the main features of the Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg interference patterns recently observed in a tripartite system [Nature Communications 1:51 (2010)]. In particular, we focus on the effects of the size of anticrossings on interference and compare the calculated interference patterns with numerical simulations. In addition, Fourier transform of the patterns ca…
Under a perfect periodic potential, the electric current density induced by a constant electric field may exhibit nontrivial oscillations, so-called Bloch oscillations, with an amplitude that remains nonzero in the large system size limit. Such oscillations have been well studied for nearly noninteracting particles and observed in experiments. In this work, we revisit Bloch oscillations in strongly interacting systems. By analyzing the spin-1/2 XXZ chain, which can be mapped to a model of spinless electrons, we demonstrate that the current density at special values of the anisotropy parameter …
We study Landau-Zener interband transitions for a non-symmetric optical lattice in the presence of an external force. We show that gain and losses of the light beam, as well as the relative occupation probabilities of the bands involved in the transitions can be accurately managed upon tuning the amplitude of the non-Hermitian component of the lattice. Exact expressions for the transition and non-transition probabilities for a non-symmetric system obtained within a two-mode approximation are provided. These equations successfully account for the main features of the transitions in the optical …
We investigate the spectral and dynamical properties of a quantum particle constrained on a ring threaded by a magnetic flux in presence of a complex (non-Hermitian) potential. For a static magnetic flux, the quantum states of the particle on the ring can be mapped into the Bloch states of a complex crystal, and magnetic flux tuning enables to probe the spectral features of the complex crystal, including the appearance of exceptional points. For a time-varying (linearly-ramped) magnetic flux, Zener tunneling among energy states is realized owing to the induced electromotive force. As compared …
We proposed a new method to measure the energy spectrum of a superconducting flux qubit. Different from the conventional frequency spectroscopy, a short triangle pulse is used to drive the qubit through the anticrossing and generates Landau-Zener-Stückelberg interference patterns, from which the information of the energy spectrum can be extracted. Without installing microwave lines one can simplify the experimental setup and reduce the unwanted effects of noise. Moreover, the method can be applied to other quantum systems, opening the possibility of calibrating and manipulating qubits with lin…
We study the interband Landau-Zener tunneling of a quantum particle in the Hall configuration, i.e., in the presence of normal to the lattice plane gauge field (for example, magnetic field for a charged particle) and in-plane potential field (electric field for a charged particle). The interband tunneling is induced by the potential field and for vanishing gauge field is described by the common Landau-Zener theory. We generalize this theory for non-zero gauge field. The depletion rates of low-energy bands are calculated by using semi-analytical method of the truncated Floquet matrix.
We report on the condensation of bosons in the 4th band of an optical chequerboard lattice providing a topologically induced avoided band crossing involving the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Bloch bands. When the condensate is slowly tuned through the avoided crossing, accelerated band relaxation arises and the zero momentum approximately $C4$-invariant condensate wave function acquires finite momentum order and reduced $C2$ symmetry. For faster tuning Landau-Zener oscillations between different superfluid orders arise, which are used to characterize the avoided crossing.
We study the behaviour of the expectation value of the acceleration of a particle in a one-dimensional periodic potential when an external homogeneous force is suddenly applied. The theory is formulated in terms of modified Bloch states that include the interband mixing induced by the force. This approach allows us to understand the behaviour of the wavepacket, which responds with a mass that is initially the bare mass, and subsequently oscillates around the value predicted by the effective mass. If Zener tunneling can be neglected, the expression obtained for the acceleration of the particle …
We study the Landau-Zener transitions generalized to multistate systems. Based on the work by Sinitsyn et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 190402 (2018)], we introduce the auxiliary Hamiltonians that are interpreted as the counterdiabatic terms. We find that the counterdiabatic Hamiltonians satisfy the zero curvature condition. The general structures of the auxiliary Hamiltonians are studied in detail and the time-evolution operator is evaluated by using a deformation of the integration contour and asymptotic forms of the auxiliary Hamiltonians. For several spin models with transverse field, we calc…
We consider sweeping a system through a Landau-Zener avoided-crossing, when that system is also coupled to an environment or noise. Unsurprisingly, we find that decoherence suppresses the coherent oscillations of quantum superpositions of system states, as superpositions decohere into mixed states. However, we also find an effect we call "Lamb-assisted coherent oscillations", in which a Lamb shift exponentially enhances the coherent oscillation amplitude. This dominates for high-frequency environments such as super-Ohmic environments, where the coherent oscillations can grow exponentially as e…
We study the Landau-Zener (LZ) dynamics in a setup of two Rydberg atoms with time-dependent detuning, both linear and periodic, using both the exact numerical calculations as well as the method of adiabatic impulse approximation (AIA). By varying the Rydberg-Rydberg interaction strengths, the system can emulate different three-level LZ models, for instance, bow-tie and triangular LZ models. The LZ dynamics exhibits non-trivial dependence on the initial state, the quench rate, and the interaction strengths. For large interaction strengths, the dynamics is well captured by AIA. In the end, we an…
Non-adiabatic decay rates for a radio-frequency dressed magnetic trap are calculated using Fermi's Golden Rule: that is, we examine the probability for a single atom to make transitions out of the dressed trap and into a continuum in the adiabatic limit, where perturbation theory can be applied. This approach can be compared to the semi-classical Landau-Zener theory of a resonant dressed atom trap, and it is found that, when carefully implemented, the Landau-Zener theory overestimates the rate of non-adiabatic spin flip transitions in the adiabatic limit. This indicates that care is needed whe…
We investigate the Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg-Majorana interferometry of a superconducting qubit in a semi-infinite transmission line terminated by a mirror. The transmon-type qubit is at the node of the resonant electromagnetic (EM) field, hiding from the EM field. "Mirror, mirror" briefly describes this system, because the qubit acts as another mirror. We modulate the resonant frequency of the qubit by applying a sinusoidal flux pump. We probe the spectroscopy by measuring the reflection coefficient of a weak probe in the system. Remarkable interference patterns emerge in the spectrum, which c…
We derive a set of constraints, which we will call hierarchy constraints (HCs), on scattering amplitudes of an arbitrary multistate Landau-Zener model (MLZM). The presence of additional symmetries can transform such constraints into nontrivial relations between elements of the transition probability matrix. This observation can be used to derive complete solutions of some MLZMs or, for models that cannot be solved completely, to reduce the number of independent elements of the transition probability matrix.
Time evolution of spin-orbit-coupled cold atoms in an optical lattice is studied, with a two-band energy spectrum having two avoided crossings. A force is applied such that the atoms experience two consecutive Landau-Zener tunnelings while transversing the avoided crossings. Stückelberg interference arises from the phase accumulated during the adiabatic evolution between the two tunnelings. This phase is gauge field-dependent and thus provides new opportunities to measure the synthetic gauge field, which is verified via calculation of spin transition probabilities after a double passage proces…
We revisit the issue of thermally assisted quantum annealing by a detailed study of the dissipative Landau-Zener problem in presence of a Caldeira-Leggett bath of harmonic oscillators, using both a weak-coupling quantum master equation and a quasi-adiabatic path-integral approach. Building on the known zero-temperature exact results (Wubs et al., PRL 97, 200404 (2006)), we show that a finite temperature bath can have a beneficial effect on the ground-state probability only if it couples also to a spin-direction that is transverse with respect to the driving field, while no improvement is obtai…
We consider theoretically a superconducting qubit - nanomechanical resonator (NR) system, which was realized by LaHaye et al. [Nature 459, 960 (2009)]. First, we study the problem where the state of the strongly driven qubit is probed through the frequency shift of the low-frequency NR. In the case where the coupling is capacitive, the measured quantity can be related to the so-called quantum capacitance. Our theoretical results agree with the experimentally observed result that, under resonant driving, the frequency shift repeatedly changes sign. We then formulate and solve the inverse Landau…
We explore the recently discovered solution of the driven Tavis-Cummings model (DTCM). It describes interaction of arbitrary number of two-level systems with a bosonic mode that has linearly time-dependent frequency. We derive compact and tractable expressions for transition probabilities in terms of the well known special functions. In the new form, our formulas are suitable for fast numerical calculations and analytical approximations. As an application, we obtain the semiclassical limit of the exact solution and compare it to prior approximations. We also reveal connection between DTCM and …
Two aspects of the classic two-level Landau--Zener (LZ) problem are considered. First, we address the LZ problem when one or both levels decay, i.e., $\veps_j(t) \to \veps_j(t)-i Γ_j/2$. We find that if the system evolves from an initial time $-T$ to a final time $+T$ such that $|\veps_1(\pm T)-\veps_2(\pm T)|$ is not too large, the LZ survival probability of a state $| j \ra$ can {\em increase} with increasing decay rate of the other state $|i \ne j \ra$. This surprising result occurs because the decay results in crossing of the two eigenvalues of the instantaneous non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. …
We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a one-dimensional system of hard core bosons (HCBs) in the presence of an onsite potential (with an alternating sign between the odd and even sites) which shows a quantum phase transition (QPT) from the superfluid (SF) phase to the so-called "Mott Insulator" (MI) phase. The ground state quantum fidelity shows a sharp dip at the quantum critical point (QCP) while the fidelity susceptibility shows a divergence right there with its scaling given in terms of the correlation length exponent of the QPT. We then study the evolution of this bosonic system follo…
We study Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg (LZS) interferometry in multilevel systems coupled to an Ohmic quantum bath. We consider the case of superconducting flux qubits driven by a dc+ac magnetic fields, but our results can apply to other similar systems. We find a dynamic transition manifested by a symmetry change in the structure of the LZS interference pattern, plotted as a function of ac amplitude and dc detuning. The dynamic transition is from a LZS pattern with nearly symmetric multiphoton resonances to antisymmetric multiphoton resonances at long times (above the relaxation time). We also sho…
