Phys. Rev. A 77, 022111 (2008) [7 pages]Decoherence and dissipation of a quantum harmonic oscillator coupled to two-level systemsReceived 16 December 2007; published 19 February 2008 We derive and analyze the Born-Markov master equation for a quantum harmonic oscillator interacting with a bath of independent two-level systems. This hitherto virtually unexplored model plays a fundamental role as one of the four “canonical” system-environment models for decoherence and dissipation. To investigate the influence of further couplings of the environmental spins to a dissipative bath, we also derive the master equation for a harmonic oscillator interacting with a single spin coupled to a bosonic bath. Our models are experimentally motivated by quantum-electromechanical systems and micron-scale ion traps. Decoherence and dissipation rates are found to exhibit temperature dependencies significantly different from those in quantum Brownian motion. In particular, the systematic dissipation rate for the central oscillator decreases with increasing temperature and goes to zero at zero temperature, but there also exists a temperature-independent momentum-diffusion (heating) rate. © 2008 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.77.022111
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.77.022111
PACS:
03.65.Yz, 42.50.Lc, 85.85.+j, 37.10.Ty
See AlsoComment: D. Mogilevtsev and V. Shatokhin, Comment on “Decoherence and dissipation of a quantum harmonic oscillator coupled to two-level systems”, Phys. Rev. A 78, 016101 (2008). Comment: Maximilian Schlosshauer, A. P. Hines, and G. J. Milburn, Reply to “Comment on ‘Decoherence and dissipation of a quantum harmonic oscillator coupled to two-level systems’ ”, Phys. Rev. A 78, 016102 (2008). |
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