Non-integrable master equations

P. C. López Vázquez
Departamento de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Universidad de Guadalajara,
Carretera Guadalajara - Ameca Km. 45.5 C.P. 46600. Ameca, Jalisco, México.
E-mail: pablo.lopez@valles.udg.mx

Abstract. Notes on some non-integrable master equations.

CONTENTS 2

Contents

1 Introduction 2
1.1 Chord function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 The Duffing oscillator 3

1. Introduction

Open dynamics in quantum systems are a fundamental part of the quantum theory due
to the inherent interaction with the surroundings and thus, any theory that boasts of
being a truthful approximation of reality, should include dissipation. The treatment
to tackle open dynamics has been standardized with the formulation of interacting
systems, in which a central system interacts with an idealized reservoir e.g. a very large
collection of harmonic oscillators at a certain temperature, or at a zero temperature,
the later corresponding to a vacuum field which will have the effect to only produce
damping to the dynamics. One of the most popular ways to treat the open dynamics
of the system is by employing master equations which have a specific form, depending
on the approximations done in their derivation and on the assumptions taken in the
interaction between the central system and the environment and on the characteristics
of the environment. The master equations are differentiual dynamical equations of the
evolution of the density operator; typically having the following form:
d%
i~ = [Ĥsys , %] + i~L[%] (1)
dt
where % = |ψihψ| is the desntiy operator and it contains all the information of the
quantum systems in question and it represents a larger class of quantum states which
are not typically possible to represent with the standard vector state formalism, |ψi
of the Schödinger equation, i.e. i~ ∂t |ψi = Ĥsys |ψi. Also, in equation (1), Ĥsys
represents the Hamiltonian operator of the quantum system, the symbol [Â, B̂] =
ÂB̂− B̂ Â irepresents the conmmutator between two linear operators A and B, and L[%]
is a superoperator (an linear operactor acting over linear operators) which represents
the dissipative process of the system due to its interaction with the surrounding
environment and its form depends on the model of dissipation one uses. This super
operator often is called the Lindblad term and all the dissipation process are described
throug it.

1.1. Chord function

One possible way to deal with the problem of solving the master equation, (1) is to
transform the equation into the chord function representation or the Wigner function
Fourier’s transform [1, 2, 3]. This transformation is done in the following form:
Z ∞Z ∞
w(k, s; τ ) = dp dq eikq+isp W(q, p; τ ) (2)
−∞ −∞
Z ∞
= dq eikq hq + s/2| %(τ ) |q − s/2i . (3)
−∞
In this description,
R ∞ R ∞ the the evolution of observables can be obtained by doing:
hÂ(τ )i = −∞ −∞ d~rw(~r, τ ) Ā(~r) where Ā(~r) is the Fourier transform of the Weyl
symbol of operator  [4, 5]. Particularly, the first and second moments can be
CONTENTS 3

easily obtained from the chord function solutions, as hx̂n i = (−i)n ∂kn wk,s=0 ; hp̂n i =

(−i)n ∂sn wk,s=0 for n = 1, 2, and the first order correlations are computed as: hx̂p̂i =

−(∂ks −i/2)wk,s=0 , hp̂x̂i = hx̂p̂i∗ . Within this description, the energy of the oscillator

may be calculated as: E(τ ) = hp̂2 i + hx̂2 i /2 = − 1 ∂ 2 + ∂s2 w(k, s, τ )



2 k k=0,s=0
.
Additionally, the position
R∞ and momentum probabilitiesR distributions can be easily
∞
obtained: P (q, τ ) = −∞ dk w(k, 0) e−ikq , and P (p, τ ) = −∞ ds w(0, s) e−isp . In more
simple words, the trasnformation to the chord function description corresponds to do
the follwoign steps;
• First, to describe the density operator in the base of the posicion; i.e. %(x, x0 ; τ ) =
hx|%(τ )|x0 i
• Do a change of variabels: x = q + s/2 y x0 = q − s/2 such that %(q, s; τ ) =
hq + s/2| %(τ ) |q − s/2i
• Finally, the chord function will be defined as the inverse Fourier transform over
the variable q to the variable k of the resulting things in the transformation; i.e.
w(k, s; τ ) = Fk−1 [%(q, s; τ )].
In the case of integrable systems, this approximation transform the operator based
differential equation, into a first order partial differential and the solutions can be
obtained analytically by using a standard method based on the application of the
fundamental matrix of the classical damped system [?]. The case of non integrable
systems is more complicated and subtle. In the following, I write some master
equations in the chord function description for a few famous non integrable systems:

2. The Duffing oscillator

In classical systems, the Duffing oscillator is an example of a periodically forced

oscillator with a nonlinear elasticity, and whose dynamics are governed by the following
differential equation:
ẍ + γ ẋ + ω 2 x + αx3 = λ cos νt (4)
where γ ≤ 0 is the damping constant and it is also known as a simple model which
yields chaos. When γ = 0, the system corresponds to a driven oscillator with a fourth
order podential, for which the Hamiltonian may be written as:
p2 m ω2 2
Hduf = + x + α0 x4 − λ(t) x (5)
2m 2
where f (τ ) = λ0 cos ν 0 t, α0 = m α/4, λ0 = mλ. A Hamiltonian operator correspondent
to this system will be thus written as:
P̂ 2 m ω2 2
Ĥduf = + X̂ + α0 X̂ 4 − f (t) X̂ , (6)
2m 2
p
and by going into a dimensionless variable description, i.e. X̂ = ~/(mω) x̂,
√
P̂ = ~mω p̂, and the dynamics measured in the dimensionless time scale τ = ωt,
the master equation corresponding to this type of system and under the influence of
a surrounding environment which dissipates and thermalizes will be given by:
d%
= [(p̂2 + x̂2 )/2 + δ x̂4 − f (τ ) x̂, % + iL[%]

i (7)
dτ
CONTENTS 4

where δ = α/ω, f (τ ) = β cos(µτ ) with β = λ/ω, µ = ν/ω; and the Lindblad term is
considered in the following way:
(8)
† † †


L[%] = − γ (n̄ + 1) â â % − 2 â% â + % â â
− γ n̄ â↠% − 2 ↠% â + % ââ†


(9)
√ √
where â = (x̂ + ip̂) 2 and ↠= (x̂ − ip̂) 2 are the dimensionless creation and
anihilation operators. By appliying the chord funciton trasnformation to the complete
master equation descirbed in (7) one obtains
γ+ 2
L̂duf w(k, s, τ ) = −(if (τ ) + (k + s2 ))w(k, s, τ ) (10)
2
where L̂duf is a differential operator which has the following form
L̂duf = −4 s ∂k3 + (s + γk + α s3 )∂k − (k − γs)∂s + ∂τ (11)
and γ+ = 2γ(n̄ + 1/2). This is a no-autonomous linear third order partial differential
equation.
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