No Arabic abstract
For many open quantum systems, a master equation approach employing the Markov approximation cannot reliably describe the dynamical behaviour. This is the case, for example, in a number of solid state or biological systems, and it has motivated a line of research aimed at quantifying the amount of non-Markovian behaviour in a given model. Within this framework, we investigate the dynamics of a quantum harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a bosonic bath. We focus on Gaussian states, which are suitably treated using a covariance matrix approach. Concentrating on an entanglement based non-Markovian behaviour quantifier (NMBQ) proposed by Rivas et. al. [1], we consider the role that near resonant and off-resonant modes play in affecting the NMBQ. By using a large but finite bath of oscillators for both Ohmic and super Ohmic spectral densities we find, by systematically increasing the coupling strength, initially the near resonant modes provide the most significant non-Markovian effects, while after a certain threshold of coupling strength the off-resonant modes play the dominant role. We also consider the NMBQ for two other models where we add a single strongly coupled oscillator to the model in extra bath mode and buffer configurations, which affects the modes that determine non-Markovian behaviour.
The force estimation problem in quantum metrology with an arbitrary non-Markovian Gaussian bath is considered. No assumptions are made on the bath spectrum and coupling strength with the probe. Considering the natural global unitary evolution of both bath and probe and assuming initial global Gaussian states we are able to solve the main issues of any quantum metrological problem: the best achievable precision determined by the quantum Fisher information, the best initial state and the best measurement. Studying the short time behavior and comparing to regular Markovian dynamics we observe an increase of quantum Fisher information. We emphasize that this phenomenon is due to the ability to perform measurements below the correlation time of the bath, activating non-Markovian effects. This brings huge consequences for the sequential preparation-and- measurement scenario as the quantum Fisher information becomes unbounded when the initial probe mean energy goes to infinity, whereas its Markovian counterpart remains bounded by a constant. The long time behavior shows the complexity and potential variety of non-Markovian effects, somewhere between the exponential decay characteristic of Markovian dynamics and the sinusoidal oscillations characteristic of resonant narrow bands.
We study the analytically solvable Ising model of a single qubit system coupled to a spin bath. The purpose of this study is to analyze and elucidate the performance of Markovian and non-Markovian master equations describing the dynamics of the system qubit, in comparison to the exact solution. We find that the time-convolutionless master equation performs particularly well up to fourth order in the system-bath coupling constant, in comparison to the Nakajima-Zwanzig master equation. Markovian approaches fare poorly due to the infinite bath correlation time in this model. A recently proposed post-Markovian master equation performs comparably to the time-convolutionless master equation for a properly chosen memory kernel, and outperforms all the approximation methods considered here at long times. Our findings shed light on the applicability of master equations to the description of reduced system dynamics in the presence of spin-baths.
We study the open dynamics of a quantum two-level system coupled to an environment modeled by random matrices. Using the quantum channel formalism, we investigate different quantum Markovianity measures and criteria. A thorough analysis of the whole parameter space, reveals a wide range of different regimes, ranging from strongly non-Markovian to Markovian dynamics. In contrast to analytical models, all non-Markovianity measures and criteria have to be applied to data with fluctuations and statistical uncertainties. We discuss the practical usefulness of the different approaches.
We apply the time-convolutionless (TCL) projection operator technique to the model of a central spin which is coupled to a spin bath via nonuniform Heisenberg interaction. The second-order results of the TCL method for the coherences and populations of the central spin are determined analytically and compared with numerical simulations of the full von Neumann equation of the total system. The TCL approach is found to yield an excellent approximation in the strong field regime for the description of both the short-time dynamics and the long time behavior.
We solve the optimal quantum limit of probing a classical force exactly by a damped oscillator initially prepared in the factorized squeezed state. The memory effects of the thermal bath on the oscillator evolution are investigated. We show that the optimal force sensitivity obtained by the quantum estimation theory approaches to zero for the non-Markovian bath, whereas approaches to a finite non-zero value for the Markovian bath as the energy of the damped oscillator goes to infinity.