We discuss a restriction on relaxation times derived from the Lindblad-type master equations for 2-level systems and show that none of the inverse relaxation times can be greater than the sum of the others. The relation is experimentally proved or disproved and can be considered to be a measure for or against the applicability of the Lindblad-type master equations and therefore of the so-called completely positive condition.
We present a closed form solution to the eigenvalue problem of a class of master equations that describe open quantum system with loss and dephasing but without gain. The method relies on the existence of a conserved number of excitation in the Hamiltonian part and that none of the Lindblad operators describe an excitation of the system. In the absence of dephasing Lindblad operators, the eigensystem of the Liouville operator can be constructed from the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian used in the quantum jump approach. Open versions of spin chains, the T…
In this paper we derive the Lindblad and Redfield forms with and without secular approximation from the Born-Markov master equation for open quantum systems. The spectral correlation tensor of bath (the Fourier transform of the bath correlation function) and then the coefficients in the two forms of the master equation are reevaluated according to the scheme in Ref.[Phys. Rev. A 99, 022118 (2019)]. They are complex numbers rather than the real numbers getting from traditional simplified methods. The dynamics of two models [one is an open three-level quantum system model, and the other is the m…
The Monte Carlo wave function method or the quantum trajectory/jump approach is a powerful tool to study dissipative dynamics governed by the Markovian master equation, in particular for high-dimensional systems and when it is difficult to simulate directly. In this paper, we extend this method to the non-Markovian case described by the generalized Lindblad master equation. Two examples to illustrate the method are presented and discussed. The results show that the method can correctly reproduce the dissipative dynamics for the system. The difference between this method and the traditional Mar…
We consider the accurate investigation of the energy current and its components, heat and work, in some boundary driven quantum spin systems. The expressions for the currents, as well as the associated Lindblad master equation, are obtained via a repeated interaction scheme. We consider small systems in order to analytically compute the steady distribution to study the current in the steady state. Asymmetrical XXZ and quantum Ising models are detailed analyzed. For the XXZ chain we present cases in which different compositions of heat and work currents, obtained via the repeated interaction pr…
Recently a generalized master equation was derived that extends the Lindblad theory to highly non-Markovian quantum processes (H.-P. Breuer, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{75}, 022103 (2007)). We perform a stochastic unravelling of this master equation by considering $n$ random state vectors that satisfy the corresponding stochastic differential equation for a piecewise deterministic process. As an application we consider a two-state system randomly coupled to an environment consisting of two energy bands with finite number of levels. Our numerical results are compared to results obtained from the time-…
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…
An experimentally realizable model based on the interaction between an excited two-level atom and a radiation field inside two quantum electrodynamics cavities is proposed. It consists of sending an excited two-level atom through two serial cavities which contain the radiation field. Hence, the Lindblad master equation described the reduced density matrix of the joint-joint field system inside the cavities is exactly solved in Markovian and non-Markovian regimes. However, the rate of entanglement inherent in the total field-field system are evaluated using various witnesses of entanglement suc…
Starting from the Liouville-von Neumann equation, under a weak coupling limit we derive the Lindblad master equation for the one-dimensional quantum Ising model in a Markov approximation and a rotating wave approximation. We also prove that the steady solution of the Lindblad equation is the canonical distribution independent of the dissipation rate.
From the Hamiltonian connecting the inside and outside of an Fabry-Perot cavity, which is derived from the Maxwell boundary conditions at a mirror of the cavity, a master equation of a non-Lindblad form is derived when the cavity embeds matters, although we can transform it to the Lindblad form by performing the rotating-wave approximation to the connecting Hamiltonian. We calculate absorption spectra by these Lindblad and non-Lindblad master equations and also by the Maxwell boundary conditions in the framework of the classical electrodynamics, which we consider the most reliable approach. We…
Realistic models of quantum systems must include dissipative interactions with an environment. For weakly-damped systems the Lindblad-form Markovian master equation is invaluable for this task due to its tractability and efficiency. This equation only applies, however, when the frequencies of any subset of the system's transitions are either equal (degenerate), or their differences are much greater than the transitions' linewidths (far-detuned). Outside of these two regimes the only available efficient description has been the Bloch-Redfield (B-R) master equation, the efficacy of which has lon…
It is shown how any Lindbladian evolution with selfadjoint Lindblad operators, either Markovian or nonMarkovian, can be understood as an averaged random unitary evolution. Both mathematical and physical consequences are analyzed. First a simple and fast method to solve this kind of master equations is suggested and particularly illustrated with the phase-damped master equation for the multiphoton resonant Jaynes-Cummings model in the rotating-wave approximation. A generalization to some intrinsic decoherence models present in the literature is included. Under the same philosophy a proposal to …
Recursive perturbation approach to time-convolutionless master equations: Explicit construction of generalized Lindblad generators for arbitrary open systems
Università degli Studi di Milano（米兰大学）；INFN, Sezione di Milano（意大利国家核物理研究所米兰分部）；University of Freiburg（弗赖堡大学）；Universität Siegen（锡根大学）；Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona（巴塞罗那自治大学）
The Lindblad form of the master equation has proven to be one of the most convenient ways to describe the impact of an environment interacting with a quantum system of interest. For single systems the jump operators characterizing these interactions usually take simple forms with a clear interpretation. However, for coupled systems these operators take significantly different forms and the full dynamics cannot be described by jump operators acting on the individual subsystems only. In this work, we investigate the differences between a common phenomenological model for the master equation and …
The theory of open quantum system is one of the most essential tools for the development of quantum technologies. Furthermore, the Lindblad (or Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad) Master Equation plays a key role as it is the most general generator of Markovian dynamics in quantum systems. In this paper, we present this equation together with its derivation and methods of resolution. The presentation tries to be as self-contained and straightforward as possible to be useful to readers with no previous knowledge of this field.
Many current problems of interest in quantum non-equilibrium are described by time-local master equations (TLMEs) for the density matrix that are not of the Lindblad form, that is, that are not strictly probability conserving and/or Markovian. Here we describe an generic approach by which the system of interest that obeys the TLME is coupled to an ancilla, such that the dynamics of the combined system-plus-ancilla is Markovian and thus described by a Lindblad equation. This in turn allows us to recover the properties of the original TLME dynamics from a physical unravelling of this associated …
In the preceding paper arXiv:0802.3252 [quant-ph] we treated a model given by a master equation with generalized Lindblad form, and examined the algebraic structure related to some Lie algebras and constructed an approximate solution. In this paper we apply a unitary transformation by the squeezing operator to the master equation. Then the generalized Lindblad form is tranformed to the usual Lindblad one, while the (original) Hamiltonian is tranformed to somewhat complicated one. As a result we have two different representations based on the Lie algebra su(1,1). We examine new algebraic struct…
The perturbative master equation (Bloch-Redfield) is extensively used to study dissipative quantum mechanics - particularly for qubits - despite the 25 year old criticism that it violates positivity (generating negative probabilities). We take an arbitrary system coupled to an environment containing many degrees-of-freedom, and cast its perturbative master equation (derived from a perturbative treatment of Nakajima-Zwanzig or Schoeller-Schon equations) in the form of a Lindblad master equation. We find that the equation's parameters are time-dependent. This time-dependence is rarely accounted …
The quantum damped harmonic oscillator is described by the master equation with usual Lindblad form. The equation has been solved completely by us in arXiv : 0710.2724 [quant-ph]. To construct the general solution a few facts of representation theory based on the Lie algebra $su(1,1)$ were used. In this paper we treat a general model described by a master equation with generalized Lindblad form. Then we examine the algebraic structure related to some Lie algebras and construct the interesting approximate solution.
We consider an open quantum system described by a Lindblad-type master equation with two times-scales. The fast time-scale is strongly dissipative and drives the system towards a low-dimensional decoherence-free space. To perform the adiabatic elimination of this fast relaxation, we propose a geometric asymptotic expansion based on the small positive parameter describing the time-scale separation. This expansion exploits geometric singular perturbation theory and center-manifold techniques. We conjecture that, at any order, it provides an effective slow Lindblad master equation and a completel…
By exploiting the peculiarities of a recently introduced formalism for describing open quantum systems (the Parametric Representation with Environmental Coherent States) we derive an equation of motion for the reduced density operator of an open quantum system that has the same structure of the celebrated Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad equation, but holds regardless of markovianity being assumed. The operators in our result have explicit expressions in terms of the Hamiltonian describing the interactions with the environment, and can be computed once a specific model is considered. We f…
We present a general approach to derive Lindblad master equations for a subsystem whose dynamics is coupled to dissipative bosonic modes. The derivation relies on a Schrieffer-Wolff transformation which allows to eliminate the bosonic degrees of freedom after self-consistently determining their state as a function of the coupled quantum system. We apply this formalism to the dissipative Dicke model and derive a Lindblad master equation for the atomic spins, which includes the coherent and dissipative interactions mediated by the bosonic mode. This master equation accurately predicts the Dicke …
Many-body quantum systems present a rich phenomenology which can be significantly altered when they are in contact with an environment. In order to study such setups, a number of approximations are usually performed, either concerning the system, the environment, or both. A typical approach for large quantum interacting systems is to use master equations which are local, Markovian, and in Lindblad form. Here, we present an implementation of the Redfield master equation using matrix product states and operators. We show that this allows us to explore parameter regimes of the many-body quantum s…
The measurement-induced phase transition (MIPT) occurs when the system is evolving under unitary evolution together with local measurements followed by post-selection. We propose a generalized version of the Lindblad master equation as a continuous equation, to describe the dynamics of second Rényi entropy in the MIPT. This generalized Lindblad equation explicitly takes into account the post-selection in the MIPT, which is realized as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state projection in the equation. Also, this generalized Lindblad equation preserves the Hermitian, unit trace, and positive de…
This work is concerned with determination of the steady-state structure of time-independent Lindblad master equations, especially those possessing more than one steady state. The approach here is to treat Lindblad systems as generalizations of unitary quantum mechanics, extending the intuition of symmetries and conserved quantities to the dissipative case. We combine and apply various results to obtain an exhaustive characterization of the infinite-time behavior of Lindblad evolution, including both the structure of the infinite-time density matrix and its dependence on initial conditions. The…
A new method for stochastic unraveling of general time-local quantum master equations (QME) which involve the reduced density operator at time t only is proposed. The present kind of jump algorithm enables a numerically efficient treatment of QMEs which are not of Lindblad form. So it opens new large fields of application for stochastic methods. The unraveling can be achieved by allowing for trajectories with negative weight. We present results for the quantum Brownian motion and the Redfield QMEs as test examples. The algorithm can also unravel non-Markovian QMEs when they are in a time-local…
We derive the quantum master equations for heavy quark systems in a high-temperature quark- gluon plasma in the Lindblad form. The master equations are derived in the influence functional formalism for open quantum systems in perturbation theory. These master equations have a wide range of applications, such as decoherence of a heavy quarkonium and Langevin dynamics of a heavy quark in the quark-gluon plasma. We also show the equivalence between the quarkonium master equations in the recoilless limit and the Schroedinger equations with stochastic potential.
In this paper I investigate the usability of the characteristic functions for the description of the dynamics of open quantum systems focussing on non-Lindblad-type master equations. I consider, as an example, a non-Markovian generalized master equation containing a memory kernel which may lead to nonphysical time evolutions characterized by negative values of the density matrix diagonal elements [S.M. Barnett and S. Stenholm, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 64}, 033808 (2001)]. The main result of the paper is to demonstrate that there exist situations in which the symmetrically ordered characteristic funct…
A Lindblad master equation for a harmonic oscillator, which describes the dynamics of an open system, is formally solved. The solution yields the spectral resolution of the Liouvillian, that is, all eigenvalues and eigenprojections are obtained. This spectral resolution is discussed in depth in the context of the biorthogonal system and the rigged Hilbert space, and the contribution of each eigenprojection to expectation values of physical quantities is revealed. We also construct the ladder operators of the Liouvillian, which clarify the structure of the spectral resolution.
We consider the problem of the measurement of a system occurring during a finite time interval, while environmentally-induced noise decreases the system-state coherence. We assume a Markovian measuring device and, therefore, use a Lindbladian description for the measurement dynamics. For studying the case of noise produced by a non-Markovian environment, whose definition does not include the measuring apparatus, we use the Redfield approach to the interaction between system and environment. In the present hybrid theory, to trace out the environmental degrees of freedom, we introduce an analyti…
Derivation of a quantum master equation for a system weakly coupled to a bath which takes into account nonsecular effects, but nevertheless has the mathematically correct Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan form (in particular, it preserves positivity of the density operator) and also satisfies the standard thermodynamic properties is a known long-standing problem in theory of open quantum systems. The nonsecular terms are important when some energy levels of the system or their differences (Bohr frequencies) are nearly degenerate. We provide a fully rigorous derivation of such equation base…
The "correlated-projection technique" has been successfully applied to derive a large class of highly non Markovian dynamics, the so called non Markovian generalized Lindblad type equations or Lindblad rate equations. In this article, general unravellings are presented for these equations, described in terms of jump-diffusion stochastic differential equations for wave functions. We show also that the proposed unravelling can be interpreted in terms of measurements continuous in time, but with some conceptual restrictions. The main point in the measurement interpretation is that the structure i…
We address the microscopic derivation of a quantum master equation in Lindblad form for the dynamics of a massive test particle with internal degrees of freedom interacting through collisions with a background ideal gas. When either internal or centre of mass degrees of freedom can be treated classically, previously established equations are obtained as special cases. If in an interferometric setup the internal degrees of freedom are not detected at the output, the equation can be recast in the form of a generalized Lindblad structure, which describes non-Markovian effects. The effect of inter…
We study the perturbative corrections to the { Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad equation which arises in the weak coupling limit}. The spin-boson model in the rotating wave approximation at zero temperature is considered. We show that the perturbative part of the density matrix satisfies the time-independent Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad equation for arbitrary order of the perturbation theory (if all the moments of the reservoir correlation function are finite). But to reproduce the right asymptotic precision at long times, one should use { an initial condition different} from the…
The quantum dynamics of a damped and forced harmonic oscillator described by a Lindblad master equation is analyzed. The master equation is converted into a matrix-vector representation and the resulting non-Hermitian Schrödinger equation is solved by Lie-algebraic techniques allowing the construction of the general solution for the density operator.
Master equations govern the time evolution of a quantum system interacting with an environment, and may be written in a variety of forms. Time-independent or memoryless master equations, in particular, can be cast in the well-known Lindblad form. Any time-local master equation, Markovian or non-Markovian, may in fact also be written in a Lindblad-like form. A diagonalisation procedure results in a unique, and in this sense canonical, representation of the equation, which may be used to fully characterize the non-Markovianity of the time evolution. Recently, several different measures of non-Ma…
In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems the damping of the harmonic oscillator is studied. A generalization of the fundamental constraints on quantum mechanical diffusion coefficients which appear in the master equation for the damped quantum oscillator is presented; the Schrödinger and Heisenberg representations of the Lindblad equation are given explicitly. On the basis of these representations it is shown that various master equations for the damped quantum oscillator used in the literature are particular cases of the Lindblad equation and that the majority of these…
