No Arabic abstract
We study transitions between the Floquet states of a periodically driven oscillator caused by the coupling of the oscillator to a thermal reservoir. The analysis refers to the oscillator that is driven close to triple its eigenfrequency and displays resonant period tripling. The interstate transitions result in a random ``walk over the states. We find the transition rates and show that the walk is nonlocal in the state space: the stationary distribution over the states is formed by the transitions between remote states. This is to be contrasted with systems in thermal equilibrium, where the distribution is usually formed by transitions between nearby states. The analysis of period tripling allows us to explore the features of the multi-state Floquet dynamics including those missing in the previously explored models of driven oscillators such as the absence of detailed balance for low temperatures. We use the results to study switching between the period-3 states of the oscillator due to quantum fluctuations and find the scaling of the switching rates with the parameters.
We present a heralded state preparation scheme for driven nonlinear open quantum systems. The protocol is based on a continuous photon counting measurement of the systems decay channel. When no photons are detected for a period of time, the system has relaxed to a measurement-induced pseudo-steady state. We illustrate the protocol by the creation of states with a negative Wigner function in a Kerr oscillator, a system whose unconditional steady state is strictly positive.
We extend non-Hermitian topological quantum walks on a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) lattice [M. S. Rudner and L. Levitov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 065703 (2009)] to the case of non-Markovian evolution. This non-Markovian model is established by coupling each unit cell in the SSH lattice to a reservoir formed by a quasi-continuum of levels. We find a topological transition in this model even in the case of non-Markovian evolution, where the walker may visit the reservoir and return to the SSH lattice at a later time. The existence of a topological transition does, however, depend on the low-frequency properties of the reservoir, characterized by a spectral density $J(epsilon)propto |epsilon|^alpha$. In particular, we find a robust topological transition for a sub-Ohmic ($alpha<1$) and Ohmic ($alpha=1$) reservoir, but no topological transition for a super-Ohmic ($alpha>1$) reservoir. This behavior is directly related to the well-known localization transition for the spin-boson model. We confirm the presence of non-Markovian dynamics by explicitly evaluating a measure of Markovianity for this model.
We propose an anharmonic oscillator driven by two periodic forces of different frequencies as a new time-dependent model for investigating quantum dissipative chaos. Our analysis is done in the frame of statistical ensemble of quantum trajectories in quantum state diffusion approach. Quantum dynamical manifestation of chaotic behavior, including the emergence of chaos, properties of strange attractors, and quantum entanglement are studied by numerical simulation of ensemble averaged Wigner function and von Neumann entropy.
The transition from quantum to classical physics remains an intensely debated question even though it has been investigated for more than a century. Further clarifications could be obtained by preparing macroscopic objects in spatial quantum superpositions and proposals for generating such states for nano-mechanical devices either in a transient or a probabilistic fashion have been put forward. Here we introduce a method to deterministically obtain spatial superpositions of arbitrary lifetime via dissipative state preparation. In our approach, we engineer a double-well potential for the motion of the mechanical element and drive it towards the ground state, which shows the desired spatial superposition, via optomechanical sideband cooling. We propose a specific implementation based on a superconducting circuit coupled to the mechanical motion of a lithium-decorated monolayer graphene sheet, introduce a method to verify the mechanical state by coupling it to a superconducting qubit, and discuss its prospects for testing collapse models for the quantum to classical transition.
We introduce an optomechanical scheme for the probabilistic preparation of single-phonon Fock states of mechanical modes based on photo-subtraction. The quality of the produced mechanical state is confirmed by a number of indicators, including phonon statistics and conditional fidelity. We assess the detrimental effect of parameters such as the temperature of the mechanical system and address the feasibility of the scheme with state-of-the-art technology.