Competition between relaxation and external driving in the dissipative Landau-Zener problem
Statistical Mechanics
2012-05-08 v1 Quantum Physics
Abstract
We study Landau-Zener transitions in a dissipative environment by means of the quasiadiabatic propagator path-integral scheme. It allows to obtain numerically exact results for the full range of the involved parameters. We discover a nonmonotonic dependence of the Landau-Zener transition probability on the sweep velocity which is explained in terms of a simple physical picture. This feature results from a nontrivial competition between relaxation processes and the external sweep and is not captured by perturbative approaches. In addition to the Landau-Zener transition probability, we study the excitation survival probability and also provide a qualitative understanding of the involved competition of time scales.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1205.1319,
title = {Competition between relaxation and external driving in the dissipative Landau-Zener problem},
author = {P. Nalbach and M. Thorwart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1205.1319},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
9 pages, 15 figures