Repeated and continuous interactions in open quantum systems

Abstract

We consider a finite quantum system S coupled to two environments of different nature. One is a heat reservoir R (continuous interaction) and the other one is a chain C of independent quantum systems E (repeated interaction). The interactions of S with R and C lead to two simultaneous dynamical processes. We show that for generic such systems, any initial state approaches an asymptotic state in the limit of large times. We express the latter in terms of the resonance data of a reduced propagator of S+R and show that it satisfies a second law of thermodynamics. We analyze a model where both S and E are two-level systems and obtain the asymptotic state explicitly (lowest order in the interaction strength). Even though R and C are not direcly coupled, we show that they exchange energy, and we find the dependence of this exchange in terms of the thermodynamic parameters. We formulate the problem in the framework of W*-dynamical systems and base the analysis on a combination of spectral deformation methods and repeated interaction model techniques. We do not use master equation approximations.

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• Dynamics of Collective Decoherence and Thermalization
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• Saturation of repeated quantum measurements
• Markovian Repeated Interaction Quantum Systems
• Quantum Measurements of Scattered Particles
• Rigorous results on approach to thermal equilibrium, entanglement, and nonclassicality of an optical quantum field mode scattering from the elements of a non-equilibrium quantum reservoir
• Existence of the thermodynamic limit and asymptotic behavior of some irreversible quantum dynamical systems