Nonlinear quantum Langevin equations for bosonic modes in solid-state systems

In this Letter, we use path integral techniques to predict the switching rate in a single-mode bistable open quantum system. While analytical expressions are well-known to be accessible for systems subject to Gaussian noise obeying classical detailed balance, we extend this approach to a class of open quantum systems, those which satisfy the recently introduced notion of hidden time-reversal symmetry [D. Roberts et al., PRX Quantum 2, 020336 (2021)2691-339910.1103/PRXQuantum.2.020336]. In particular, in the context of quantum computing, we obtain analytical estimates of bit-flip error rates in cat-qubit architectures. We confirm these findings by comparing our results to numerically exact diagonalization of the Lindbladian. Our results provide a path towards exploring switching phenomena in multistable open quantum systems.

One of the unique features of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians is the non-Hermitian skin effect, namely, that the eigenstates are exponentially localized at the boundary of the system. For open quantum systems, a short-time evolution can often be well described by the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, while long-time dynamics calls for the Lindblad master equations, in which the Liouvillian superoperators generate time evolution. In this Letter, we find that Liouvillian superoperators can exhibit the non-Hermitian skin effect, and uncover its unexpected physical consequences. It is shown that the non-Hermitian skin effect dramatically shapes the long-time dynamics, such that the damping in a class of open quantum systems is algebraic under periodic boundary conditions but exponential under open boundary conditions. Moreover, the non-Hermitian skin effect and non-Bloch bands cause a chiral damping with a sharp wave front. These phenomena are beyond the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians; instead, they belong to the non-Hermitian physics of full-fledged open quantum dynamics.

In a series of papers, we intend to take the perspective of open quantum systems and examine from their nonequilibrium dynamics the conditions when the physical quantities, their relations, and the laws of thermodynamics become well defined and viable for quantum many-body systems. We first describe how an open-system nonequilibrium dynamics (ONEq) approach is different from the closed combined system+ environment in a global thermal state (CGTs) setup. Only after the open system equilibrates will it be amenable to conventional thermodynamics descriptions, thus quantum thermodynamics (QTD) comes at the end rather than assumed in the beginning. The linkage between the two comes from the reduced density matrix of ONEq in that stage having the same form as that of the system in the CGTs. We see the open-system approach having the advantage of dealing with nonequilibrium processes as many experiments in the near future will call for. Because it spells out the conditions of QTD's existence, it can also aid us in addressing the basic issues in quantum thermodynamics from first principles in a systematic way. We then study one broad class of open quantum systems where the full nonequilibrium dynamics can be solved exactly, that of the quantum Brownian motion of N strongly coupled harmonic oscillators, interacting strongly with a scalar-field environment. In this paper, we focus on the internal energy, heat capacity, and the third law. We show for this class of physical models, amongst other findings, the extensive property of the internal energy, the positivity of the heat capacity, and the validity of the third law from the perspective of the behavior of the heat capacity toward zero temperature. These conclusions obtained from exact solutions and quantitative analysis clearly disprove claims of negative specific heat in such systems and dispel allegations that in such systems the validity of the third law of thermodynamics relies on quantum entanglement. They are conceptually and factually unrelated issues. Entropy and entanglement will be the main theme of our second paper on this subject matter.

The behaviors of the hydrodynamic fluctuations near the convection threshold are investigated on the basis of the nonlinear hydrodynamic equations with random forces. A nonlinear Langevin equation for the fundamental mode, which becomes unstable near the critical point, is obtained by taking into account the selection rule for the mode-mode coupling caused by the nonlinear interaction of hydrodynamic variables. It is found from the nonlinear Langevin equation that, when the Rayleigh number R exceeds its critical value R c , the convection associated with the fundamental mode sets in and its velocity varies as ( R - R c ) 1/2 and furthermore the second and the third modes depend on the Rayleigh number as ( R - R c ) and ( R - R c ) 3/2 , respectively. By solving the Fokker-Planck equation derived from the nonlinear Langevin equation, we obtain that the fluctuations of the fundamental mode become large as | R - R c | -1 near the threshold but remain finite at the critical point. It is shown that these results can be applied only to the fluid with the Plandtl number above unity and the behavior of the hydrodynamic variables near the convection threshold depends on whether the Prandtl number is below or above unity.

While two-level systems (TLS) in superconducting qubits are known to introduce phonon-mediated energy dissipation channels, many-body TLS systems themselves can also act as a distinct dissipation channel whose effect on qubit energy relaxation remains to be explored. In this work, we model and numerically simulate the irreversible thermalization-driven energy relaxation of a superconducting qubit coupled to a many-body TLS system. Our numerical results show that thermalization suppresses coherent energy exchange between the qubit and TLS, resulting in exponential energy decay. The relaxation times scale as $T_1, T_2 \propto J^{-2}$, where $J$ denotes the qubit-TLS coupling strength. Moreover, $T_1$ is significantly affected by the internal coupling strength of the TLS system, the TLS frequency fluctuation rate, and the number of thermally excited TLS. This work provides a quantum thermalization perspective for understanding qubit energy relaxation and decoherence, with potential implications for decoherence scenarios in other open quantum systems.

In this paper a one-dimensional model of two infinite gases separated by a movable heavy piston is considered. The nonlinear Langevin equation for the motion of the piston is derived from first principles for the case when the thermodynamic parameters and/or the molecular masses of gas particles on the left and right sides of the piston are different. Microscopic expressions involving time correlation functions of the force between bath particles and the piston are obtained for all parameters appearing in the nonlinear Langevin equation. It is demonstrated that the equation has stationary solutions corresponding to directional fluctuation-induced drift in the absence of systematic forces. In the case of ideal gases interacting with the piston via a quadratic repulsive potential, the model is exactly solvable and explicit expressions for the kinetic coefficients in the nonlinear Langevin equation are derived. The transient solution of the nonlinear Langevin equation is analyzed perturbatively and it is demonstrated that previously obtained results for systems with the hard-wall interaction are recovered.

We study the superradiant evolution of a set of $N$ two-level systems spontaneously radiating under the effect of phase-breaking mechanisms. We investigate the dynamics generated by non-radiative losses and pure dephasing, and their interplay with spontaneous emission. Our results show that in the parameter region relevant to many solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments, even with a dephasing rate much faster than the radiative lifetime of a single two-level system, a sub-optimal collective superfluorescent burst is still observable. We also apply our theory to the dilute excitation regime, often used to describe optical excitations in solid-state systems. In this regime, excitations can be described in terms of bright and dark bosonic quasiparticles. We show how the effect of dephasing and losses in this regime translates into inter-mode scattering rates and quasiparticle lifetimes.

We report on a systematic geometric procedure, built up on solutions designed in the absence of dissipation, to mitigate the effects of dissipation in the control of open quantum systems. Our method addresses a standard class of open quantum systems that encompasses non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. It provides the analytical expression of the extra magnetic field to be superimposed to the driving field in order to compensate the geometric distortion induced by dissipation for spin systems, and produces an exact geometric optimization of fast population transfer. Interestingly, it also preserves the robustness properties of protocols originally optimized against noise. Its extension to two interacting spins restores a fidelity close to unity for the fast generation of Bell state in the presence of dissipation.

Using Liouville space and superoperator formalism we consider pure stationary states of open and dissipative quantum systems. We discuss stationary states of open quantum systems, which coincide with stationary states of closed quantum systems. Open quantum systems with pure stationary states of linear oscillator are suggested. We consider stationary states for the Lindblad equation. We discuss bifurcations of pure stationary states for open quantum systems which are quantum analogs of classical dynamical bifurcations.

We consider a stochastic nonlinear fractional Langevin equation of two fractional orders Dβ(Dα+γ)ψ(t)=λϑ(t,ψ(t))w˙(t),0<t≤1. Given some suitable conditions on the above parameters, we prove the existence and uniqueness of the mild solution to the initial value problem for the stochastic nonlinear fractional Langevin equation using Banach fixed-point theorem (Contraction mapping theorem). The upper bound estimate for the second moment of the mild solution is given, which shows exponential growth in time t at a precise rate of 3c1expc3t2(α+β)−1+c4t2α−1 on the parameters α>1 and α+β>1 for some positive constants c1,c3 and c4.

We recall the general proof of the statement that the behavior of every holonomic nonrelativistic system can be described in terms of the Langevin equation in Euclidean (imaginary) time such that for certain initial conditions, the different stochastic correlators (after averaging over the stochastic force) coincide with the quantum mechanical correlators. The Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov (FPK) equation that follows from this Langevin equation is equivalent to the Schrodinger equation in Euclidean time if the Hamiltonian is Hermitian, the dynamics are described by potential forces, the vacuum state is normalizable, and there is an energy gap between the vacuum state and the first excited state. These conditions are necessary for proving the limit and ergodic theorems. For three solvable models with nonlinear Langevin equations, we prove that the corresponding Schrodinger equations satisfy all the above conditions and lead to local linear FPK equations with the derivative order not exceeding two. We also briefly discuss several subtle mathematical questions of stochastic calculus.

Processes involving quantum tunneling can be found in a huge variety of physical and chemical systems, ranging in length from the mesoscopic scale of a few microns to the subatomic scale of a few fermi. It has been realized already three decades ago that thereby the interaction of the tunneling degree of freedom with environmental degrees of freedom plays a crucial role. Namely, any realistic description has to account for the fact that a purely isolated system is always an idealization, an issue which tends to become more and more relevant with the growing complexity of the system and particularly with increasing system size. A quantitative understanding of experimental observations must include the presence of e.g. electromagnetic modes in electrical circuits, vibrational modes in molecular aggregates, or phonon backgrounds in solid state systems. Moreover, as a genuine quantum effect tunneling processes serve as paradigm to analyze the boundary between the microscopic and the macroscopic world or at least to elucidate how the latter one emerges from the former one.

Open quantum systems and study of decoherence are important for our fundamental understanding of quantum physical phenomena. For practical purposes, a large number of quantum protocols exist that exploit quantum resources, e.g., entanglement, which allows us to go beyond what is possible to achieve by classical means. We combine concepts from open quantum systems and quantum information science and give a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration---with teleportation---that it is possible to implement efficiently a quantum protocol via a non-Markovian open system. The results show that, at the time of implementation of the protocol, it is not necessary to have the quantum resource in the degree of freedom used for the basic protocol---as long as there exists some other degree of freedom or the environment of an open system, which contains useful resources. The experiment is based on a pair of photons, where their polarizations act as open system qubits and frequencies as their environments, while the path degree of freedom of one of the photons represents the state of Alice's qubit to be teleported to Bob's polarization qubit.

Coherence and quantum correlations have been identified as fundamental resources for quantum information tasks. As recently shown, these resources can be interconverted. In multipartite systems, entanglement represents a prominent case among quantum correlations, one which can be activated from coherence. All this makes coherence a key resource for securing the operational advantage of quantum technologies. When dealing with open systems, decoherence hinders full exploitation of quantum resources. Here, we present a protocol that allows reaching the maximal achievable amount of coherence in an open quantum system. By implementing our protocol, or suitable variants of it, coherence losses might be fully compensated, thereby leading to coherence revivals. We provide an experimental proof of principle of our protocol through its implementation with an all-optical setup.

The Tavis-Cummings model (the Dicke model treated in the rotating-wave approximation), describing many two-level systems coupled to a single bosonic mode, has been long known to show collective semiclassical oscillations when prepared in an inverted state, with all two-level systems excited and the bosonic mode is empty. This paper discusses how the quantum dynamics approaches this semiclassical result for large numbers of two-level systems, focusing on how the eigenvalues approach their semiclassical limit. The approach to the semiclassical result is found to be slow, scaling like a power of the logarithm of the system size. Considering also the effect of weak detuning between the two-level system and the bosonic field, quantum corrections are again found to decay slowly with system size, such that for a fixed detuning, the quantum effects of detuning are greater than the classical effect.