paper

Universality in dissipative Landau-Zener transitions

arXiv:0912.3531 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.82.032118

Abstract

We introduce a random variable approach to investigate the dynamics of a dissipative two-state system. Based on an exact functional integral description, our method reformulates the problem as that of the time evolution of a quantum state vector subject to a Hamiltonian containing random noise fields. This numerically exact, non-perturbative formalism is particularly well suited in the context of time-dependent Hamiltonians, both at zero and finite temperature. As an important example, we consider the renowned Landau-Zener problem in the presence of an Ohmic environment with a large cutoff frequency at finite temperature. We investigate the 'scaling' limit of the problem at intermediate times, where the decay of the upper spin state population is universal. Such a dissipative situation may be implemented using a cold-atom bosonic setup.

6 pages, 2 figs; added finite temperature results

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