English

Dissipative dynamics of a biased qubit coupled to a harmonic oscillator: Analytical results beyond the rotating wave approximation

Quantum Physics 2008-11-24 v2 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Superconductivity

Abstract

We study the dissipative dynamics of a biased two-level system (TLS) coupled to a harmonic oscillator (HO), the latter interacting with an Ohmic environment. Using Van-Vleck perturbation theory and going to second order in the coupling between TLS and HO, we show how the Hamiltonian of the TLS-HO system can be diagonalized analytically. Our model represents an improvement to the usually used Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian as an initial rotating wave approximation is avoided. By assuming a weak coupling to the thermal bath, analytical expressions for the time evolution of the populations of the TLS are found: the population is characterized by a multiplicity of damped oscillations together with a complex relaxation dynamics towards thermal equilibrium. The long time evolution is characterized by a single relaxation rate, which is largest at resonance and whose expression can be given in closed analytic form.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0806.3387,
  title  = {Dissipative dynamics of a biased qubit coupled to a harmonic oscillator: Analytical results beyond the rotating wave approximation},
  author = {Johannes Hausinger and Milena Grifoni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.3387},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

39 pages, 17 figures; published version