No Arabic abstract
Topological phases of matter are protected from local perturbations and therefore have been thought to be robust against decoherence. However, it has not been systematically explored whether and how topological states are dynamically robust against the environment-induced decoherence. In this Letter, we develop a theory for topological systems that incorporate dissipations, noises and thermal effects. We derive novelly the exact master equation and the transient quantum transport for the study of dissipative topological systems, mainly focusing on noninteracting topological insulators and topological superconductors. The resulting exact master equation and the transient transport current are also applicable for the systems initially entangled with environments. We apply the theory to the topological Haldane model (Chern insulator) and the quantized Majorana conductance to explore topological phases of matter that incorporate dissipations, noises and thermal effects, and demonstrate the dissipative dynamics of topological states.
Combining physical and synthetic dimensions allows a controllable realization and manipulation of high dimensional topological states. In our work, we introduce two quasiperiodically driven 1D systems which enable tunable topological energy conversion between different driving sources. Using three drives, we realize a 4D quantum Hall state which allows energy conversion between two of the drives within the bulk of the 1D system. With only two drives, we achieve energy conversion between the two at the edge of the chain. Both effects are a manifestation of the effective axion electrodynamics in a 3D time-reversal invariant topological insulator. Furthermore, we explore the effects of disorder and commensurability of the driving frequencies, and show the phenomena is robust. We propose two experimental platforms, based on semiconductor heterostructures and ultracold atoms in optical lattices, in order to observe the topological energy conversion.
Coupling with an external environment inevitably affects the dynamics of a quantum system. Here, we consider how charging performances of a quantum battery, modelled as a two level system, are influenced by the presence of an Ohmic thermal reservoir. The latter is coupled to both longitudinal and transverse spin components of the quantum battery including decoherence and pure dephasing mechanisms. Charging and discharging dynamics of the quantum battery, subjected to a static driving, are obtained exploiting a proper mapping into the so-called spin-boson model. Analytic expressions for the time evolution of the energy stored in the weak coupling regime are presented relying on a systematic weak damping expansion. Here, decoherence and pure dephasing dissipative coupling are discussed in details. We argue that the former results in better charging performances, showing also interesting features reminiscent of the Lamb shift level splitting renormalization induced by the presence of the reservoir. Charging stability is also addressed, by monitoring the energy behaviour after the charging protocol has been switched off. This study presents a general framework to investigate relaxation effects, able to include also non Markovian effects, and it reveals the importance of controlling and, possibly, engineering system-bath coupling in the realization of quantum batteries.
We investigate the conditions under which periodically driven quantum systems subject to dissipation exhibit a stable subharmonic response. Noting that coupling to a bath introduces not only cooling but also noise, we point out that a system subject to the latter for the entire cycle tends to lose coherence of the subharmonic oscillations, and thereby the long-time temporal symmetry breaking. We provide an example of a short-ranged two-dimensional system which does not suffer from this and therefore displays persistent subharmonic oscillations stabilised by the dissipation. We also show that this is fundamentally different from the disordered DTC previously found in closed systems, both conceptually and in its phenomenology. The framework we develop here clarifies how fully connected models constitute a special case where subharmonic oscillations are stable in the thermodynamic limit.
We theoretically investigate the dynamics of two spin qubits interacting with a magnetic medium. A systematic theoretical framework for this qubit-magnet hybrid system is developed in terms of the equilibrium properties of the magnetic medium. Our particular focus is on the induced dissipative coupling between the spin qubits. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that dissipation is detrimental to quantum effects, here we show that a sizable long-lifetime entanglement can be established via a dissipative environment, in the absence of any coherent coupling. Moreover, we demonstrate that maximally-entangled two-qubit states (Bell states) can be achieved in this scheme when complemented by proper postselection. In this situation, there is a dynamical phase transition separated by an exceptional point. The resultant Bell state is robust against weak random perturbations and does not require the preparation of a particular initial state. Our study may find applications in quantum information science, quantum spintronics, and for sensing of nonlocal quantum correlations.
For systems that can be modeled as a single-particle lattice extended along a privileged direction as, e.g., quantum wires, the so-called eigenvalue method provides full information about the propagating and evanescent modes as a function of energy. This complex-band structure method can be applied either to lattices consisting of an infinite succession of interconnected layers described by the same local Hamiltonian or to superlattices: Systems in which the spatial periodicity involves more than one layer. Here, for time-dependent systems subject to a periodic driving, we present an adapted version of the superlattice scheme capable of obtaining the Floquet states and the Floquet quasienergy spectrum. Within this scheme the time periodicity is treated as existing along spatial dimension added to the original system. The solutions at a single energy for the enlarged artificial system provide the solutions of the original Floquet problem. The method is suited for arbitrary periodic excitations including strong and anharmonic drivings. We illustrate the capabilities of the methods for both time-independent and time-dependent systems by discussing: (a) topological superconductors in multimode quantum wires with spin-orbit interaction and (b) microwave driven quantum dot in contact with a topological superconductor.