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The Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage on a three-state system interacting with a spin bath is considered focusing on the efficiency of the population transfer. Our analysis is based on the perturbation treatment of the interaction term evaluated beyond the Rotating Wave Approximation, thus focusing on the limit of weak system-bath coupling. The analytical expression of the correction to the efficiency and consequent numerical analysis show that in most of the cases the effects of the environment are negligible, confirming the robustness of the population transfer., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures

This extended abstract contains an outline of the work reported at the conference IQIS2018. We show that it is possible to exploit a thermalization process to extract work from a resource system $R$ to a bipartite system $S$. To do this, we propose a simple protocol in a general setting in the presence of a single bath at temperature $T$ and then examine it when $S$ is described by the quantum Rabi model at $T=0$. We find the theoretical bounds of the protocol in the general case and we show that when applied to the Rabi model it gives rise to a satisfactory extraction of work and efficiency., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Proceedings (extended abstract) for the conference IQIS 2018, special issue of Proceedings (MDPI). Version close to the published one

Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage, a very efficient technique for manipulating a quantum system based on the adiabatic theorem, is analyzed in the case where the manipulated physical system is interacting with a spin bath. Exploitation of the rotating wave approximation allows for the identification of a constant of motion which simplifies both the analytical and the numerical treatment, which allows for evaluating the total unitary evolution of system and bath. The efficiency of the population transfer process is investigated in several regimes, including the weak and strong coupling with the environment and the off-resonance. The formation of appropriate Zeno subspaces explains the lowering of the efficiency in the strong damping regime., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures (5 captions)

A direct quantization of the Newtonian interaction between two masses is known to establish entanglement, which if detected would witness the quantum nature of the gravitational field. Gravitational interaction is yet compatible also with gravitational decoherence models relying on classical channels, hence unable to create entanglement. Here, we show in paradigmatic cases that, despite the absence of entanglement, a classical-channel model of gravity can still establish quantum correlations in the form of quantum discord between two masses. This is demonstrated for the Kafri-Taylor-Milburn (KTM) model and a recently proposed dissipative extension of this. In both cases, starting from an uncorrelated state, a significant amount of discord is generally created. This eventually decays in the KTM model, while it converges to a small stationary value in its dissipative extension. We also find that initial local squeezing on the state of the masses can significanlty enhance the generated discord., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

We study the emergence of synchronisation in a chiral network of harmonic oscillators. The network consists of a set of locally incoherently pumped harmonic oscillators coupled pairwise in cascade with travelling field modes. Such cascaded coupling leads to feedback-less dissipative interaction between the harmonic oscillators of the pair which can be described in terms of an effective pairwise hamiltonian a collective pairwise decay. The network is described mathematically in terms of a directed graph. By analysing geometries of increasing complexity we show how the onset of synchronisation depends strongly on the network topology, with the emergence of synchronised communities in the case of complex networks. The quantum nature of the non local correlation between network nodes is assessed., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures

The counterpart of the rotating wave approximation for non-Hermitian Hamiltonians is considered, which allows for the derivation of a suitable effective Hamiltonian for systems with some states undergoing decays. In the limit of very high decay rates, on the basis of this effective description we can predict the occurrence of a quantum Zeno dynamics which is interpreted as the removal of some coupling terms and the vanishing of an operatorial pseudo-Lamb shift.

A system consisting of two qubits and a resonator is considered in the presence of different sources of noise, bringing to light the possibility for making the two qubits evolve in a synchronized way. A direct qubit-qubit interaction turns out to be a crucial ingredient as well as dissipation processes involving the resonator. The detrimental role of local dephasing of the qubits is also taken into account.

Quantum technologies exploiting bipartite entanglement could be made more efficient by using states having the minimum amount of energy for a given entanglement degree. Here, we study how to generate these states in the case of a bipartite system of arbitrary finite dimension either by applying a unitary transformation to its ground state or through a zero-temperature thermalization protocol based on turning on and off a suitable interaction term between the subsystems. In particular, we explicitly identify three possible unitary operators and five possible interaction terms. On one hand, two of the three unitary transformations turn out to be easily decomposable in terms of local elementary operations and a single nonlocal one, making their implementation easier. On the other hand, since the thermalization procedures can be easily adapted to generate many different states, we numerically show that, for each degree of entanglement, generating minimum-energy entangled states costs, in general, less than generating the vast majority of the other states., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures. Updated version close to the published one

The multistate Majorana model in the presence of dissipation and dephasing is considered. It is proven that increasing the Hilbert space dimension the system becomes more and more fragile to quantum noise. The impossibility to recast the problem in the form of a set of independent spin-$1/2$ problems because of the presence of the noise is pointed out.

The degenerate Landau-Zener-Majorana-St\"uckelberg model consists of two degenerate energy levels whose energies vary with time and in the presence of an interaction which couples the states of the two levels. In the adiabatic limit, it allows for the populations transfer from states of one level to states of the other level. The presence of an interaction with the environment influences the efficiency of the process. Nevertheless, identification of possible decoherence-free subspaces permits to engineer coupling schemes for which quantum noise can be minimized.

Effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians describing decaying systems are derived and analyzed in connection with the occurrence of possible Hilbert space partitioning, resulting in a confinement of the dynamics. In some cases, this fact can be interpreted properly as Zeno effect or Zeno dynamics, according to the dimension of the subspace one focuses on; in some other cases, the interpretation is more complicated and traceable back to a mix of Zeno phenomena and lack of resonance. Depending on the complex phases of the diagonal terms of the Hamiltonian, the system reacts in different ways, requiring larger moduli for the dynamical confinement to occur when the complex phase is close to $\pi/2$.

The three-state Majorana model in the presence of dissipation is considered. Different models of system-environment interaction are explored, ranging from situation where dissipation is the main effect to regimes where dephasing is mainly produced. It is shown that the detrimental effects of the noise are stronger in the presence of dissipation than in the presence of dephasing. The role of temperature is also discussed.

We find the minimum and the maximum value for the local energy of an arbitrary finite bipartite system for any given amount of entanglement, also identifying families of states reaching these bounds and sharing formal analogies with thermal states. Then, we numerically study the probability of randomly generating pure states close to these energy bounds finding, in all the considered configurations, that it is extremely low except for the two-qubit and highly degenerate cases. These results can be important in quantum technologies to design energetically more efficient protocols., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Updated version close to the published one

A three-state system subjected to a time-dependent Hamiltonian whose bare energies undergo one or more crossings, depending on the relevant parameters, is considered, also taking into account the role of dissipation in the adiabatic following of the Hamiltonian eigenstates. Depending on the fact that the bare energies are equidistant or not, the relevant population transfer turns out to be very sensitive to the environmental interaction or relatively robust. The physical mechanisms on the basis of this behavior are discussed in detail.

A population transfer based on adiabatic evolutions in a three-state system undergoing an avoided crossing is considered. The efficiency of the process is analyzed in connection with the relevant parameters, bringing to light an important role of the phases of the coupling constants. The role of dissipation is also taken into account, focusing on external decays that can be described by effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Though the population transfer turns out to be quite sensitive to the decay processes, for very large decay rates the occurrence of a Zeno-phenomenon allows for restoring a very high efficiency.

The Steepest Entropy Ascent approach is considered and applied to few-state systems. When the Hamiltonian of the system is time dependent, the principle of maximum entropy production can still be exploited; arguments to support this fact are given. In the limit of slowly varying Hamiltonians which allows for the adiabatic approximation for the unitary part of the dynamics, the system exhibits significant robustness to the thermalization process. Specific examples such as a spin in a rotating field and a generic two-state system undergoing an avoided crossing are considered.

We propose a simple protocol exploiting the thermalization of a $\textit{storage}$ bipartite system $S$ to extract work from a $\textit{resource}$ system $R$. The protocol is based on a recent work definition involving only a single bath. A general description of the protocol is provided without specifying the characteristics of $S$. We quantify both the extracted work and the ideal efficiency of the process also giving maximum bounds for them. Then, we apply the protocol to two cases: two interacting qubits and the Rabi model. In both cases, for very strong couplings, an extraction of work comparable with the bare energies of the subsystems of $S$ is obtained and its peak is reached for finite values of the bath temperature, $T$. We finally show, in the Rabi model at $T=0$, how to transfer the work stored in $S$ to an external device, permitting thus a cyclic implementation of the whole work-extraction protocol. Our proposal makes use of simple operations not needing fine control., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Updated version close to the published one

A spin star system consisting of three peripheral two-state systems and a central one is considered, with the peripheral spins assumed to interact with each other, as well as with the central one. It is shown that such two couplings, each one being a thermal entanglement source, can significantly compete in the formation of quantum correlations in the thermal state, to the point that they can destroy any thermal entanglement of the peripheral spins., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

We consider a star network consisting of N oscillators coupled to a central one which in turn is coupled to an infinite set of oscillators (reservoir), which makes it leaking. Two of the N + 1 normal modes are dissipating, while the remaining N - 1 lie in a frequency range which is more and more squeezed as the coupling strengths increase, which realizes synchronization of the single parts of the system.

The antidynamical Casimir effect (ADCE) is a term coined to designate the coherent annihilation of excitations due to resonant external perturbation of system parameters, allowing for extraction of quantum work from nonvacuum states of some field. Originally proposed for a two-level atom (qubit) coupled to a single cavity mode in the context of nonstationary quantum Rabi model, it suffered from very low transition rate and correspondingly narrow resonance linewidth. In this paper we show analytically and numerically that the ADCE rate can be increased by at least one order of magnitude by replacing the qubit by an artificial three-level atom (qutrit) in a properly chosen configuration. For the cavity thermal state we demonstrate that the dynamics of the average photon number and atomic excitation is completely different from the qubit's case, while the behavior of the total number of excitations is qualitatively similar yet significantly faster., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

The sensitivity of a repeated measurement-based purification scheme to additional undesired couplings is analyzed, focusing on the very simple and archetypical system consisting of two two-level systems interacting with a repeatedly measured one. Several regimes are considered and in the strong coupling (i.e., when the coupling constant of the undesired interaction is very large) the occurrence of a quantum Zeno effect is proven to dramatically jeopardize the efficiency of the purification process., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

Two oscillators coupled to a two-level system which in turn is coupled to an infinite number of oscillators (reservoir) are considered, bringing to light the occurrence of synchronization. A detailed analysis clarifies the physical mechanism that forces the system to oscillate at a single frequency with a predictable and tunable phase difference. Finally, the scheme is generalized to the case of $N$ oscillators and $M(

We consider the dissipative single-qubit circuit QED architecture in which the atomic transition frequency undergoes a weak external time-modulation. For sinusoidal modulation with linearly varying frequency we derive effective Hamiltonians that resemble the Landau-Zener problem of finite duration associated to a two- or multi-level systems. The corresponding off-diagonal coupling coefficients originate either from the rotating or the counter-rotating terms in the Rabi Hamiltonian, depending on the values of the modulation frequency. It is demonstrated that in the dissipation less case one can accomplish almost complete transitions between the eigenstates of the bare Rabi Hamiltonian even for relatively short duration of the frequency sweep. To assess the experimental feasibility of our scheme we solved numerically the phenomenological and the microscopic quantum master equations in the Markovian regime at zero temperature. Both models exhibit qualitatively similar behavior and indicate that photon generation from vacuum via effective Landau-Zener transitions could be implemented with the current technology on the timescales of a few microseconds. Moreover, unlike the harmonic dynamical Casimir effect implementations, our proposal does not require the precise knowledge of the resonant modulation frequency to accomplish meaningful photon generation., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures

A thorough analysis of the evolutions of bipartite systems characterized by the \lq effective absence\rq\, of interaction between the two subsystems is reported. First, the connection between the concepts underlying Interaction-Free Evolutions (IFE) and Decoherence-Free Subspaces (DFS) is explored, showing intricate relations between these concepts. Second, starting from this analysis and inspired by a generalization of DFS already known in the literature, we introduce the notion of generalized IFE (GIFE), also providing a useful characterization that allows to develop a general scheme for finding GIFE states.

The dynamics of a two-state system whose energies undergo a real crossing at some instant of time is studied. At this instant, both the coupling and the detuning vanish simultaneously, which leads to an exact degeneracy of the eigenenergies of the system. It is found that the dynamics of the system is primarily determined by the manner in which the degeneracy occurs. This interesting behavior is reminiscent of a symmetry breaking process, since the totally symmetric situation occurring at the crossing is significantly altered by infinitesimal quantities, which remove the degeneracy, with very important dynamical implications from there on. A very simple analytical formula is derived, which is found to describe the population changes very accurately.

The generalization of the concept of interaction-free evolutions (IFE) [A. Napoli, {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 89}, 062104 (2014)] to the case of time-dependent Hamiltonians is discussed. It turns out that the time-dependent case allows for much more rich structures of interaction-free states and interaction-free subspaces. The general condition for the occurrence of IFE is found and exploited to analyze specific situations. Several examples are presented, each one associated to a class of Hamiltonians with specific features., Comment: 6 pahes, no figures

The problem of a particle confined in a box with moving walls is studied, focusing on the case of small perturbations which do not alter the shape of the boundary (\lq pantography\rq). The presence of resonant transitions involving the natural transition frequencies of the system and the Fourier transform of the velocity of the walls of the box is brought to the light. The special case of a pantographic change of a circular box is analyzed in dept, also bringing to light the fact that the movement of the boundary cannot affect the angular momentum of the particle., Comment: Accepted for the publication in Open Systems and Information Dynamics

Some recent results concerning a particle confined in a one-dimensional box with moving walls are briefly reviewed. By exploiting the same techniques used for the 1D problem, we investigate the behavior of a quantum particle confined in a two-dimensional box (a 2D billiard) whose walls are moving, by recasting the relevant mathematical problem with moving boundaries in the form of a problem with fixed boundaries and time-dependent Hamiltonian. Changes of the shape of the box are shown to be important, as it clearly emerges from the comparison between the "pantographic", case (same shape of the box through all the process) and the case with deformation., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures

Complete positivity of a class of maps generated by master equations derived beyond the secular approximation is discussed. The connection between such class of evolutions and physical properties of the system is analyzed in depth. It is also shown that under suitable hypotheses a Zeno dynamics can be induced because of the high temperature of the bath., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures

We analyze the non-relativistic problem of a quantum particle that bounces back and forth between two moving walls. We recast this problem into the equivalent one of a quantum particle in a fixed box whose dynamics is governed by an appropriate time-dependent Schroedinger operator., Comment: 12 pages, 0 figures

A simple algebraic approach to the study of multipartite entanglement for pure states is introduced together with a class of suitable functionals able to detect entanglement. On this basis, some known results are reproduced. Indeed, by investigating the properties of the introduced functionals, it is shown that a subset of such class is strictly connected to the purity. Moreover, a direct and basic solution to the problem of the simultaneous maximization of three appropriate functionals for three-qubit states is provided, confirming that the simultaneous maximization of the entanglement for all possible bipartitions is compatible only with the structure of GHZ-states.

Temperature can be responsible for strengthening effective couplings between quantum states, determining a hierarchy of interactions, and making it possible to establish such dynamical regimes known as Zeno dynamics, wherein a strong coupling can hinder the effects of a weak one. The relevant physical mechanisms which connect the structure of a thermal state with the appearance of special dynamical regimes are analyzed in depth.

We discuss the partitioning of the Hilbert space of a quantum system induced by the interaction with another system at thermal equilibrium, showing that the higher the temperature the more effective is the formation of Zeno subspaces. We show that our analysis keeps its validity even in the case of interaction with a bosonic reservoir, provided appropriate limitations of the relevant bandwidth., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

We analyze the effect of a dissipative bosonic environment on the Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg-Majorana (LZSM) level crossing model by using a microscopic approach to derive the relevant master equation. For an environment at zero temperature and weak dissipation our microscopic approach confirms the independence of the survival probability on the decay rate that has been predicted earlier by the simple phenomenological LZSM model. For strong decay the microscopic approach predicts a notable increase of the survival probability, which signals dynamical decoupling of the initial state. Unlike the phenomenological model our approach makes it possible to study the dependence of the system dynamics on the temperature of the environment. In the limit of very high temperature we find that the dynamics is characterized by a very strong dynamical decoupling of the initial state - temperature-induced quantum Zeno effect., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

In a recent paper [M. Huber {\it et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 104}, 210501 (2010)] new criteria to find out the presence of multipartite entanglement have been given. We exploit these tools in order to study thermal entanglement in a spin-star network made of three peripheral spins interacting with a central one. Genuine tripartite entanglement is found in a wide range of the relevant parameters. A comparison between predictions based on the new criteria and on the tripartite negativity is also given., Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures

We exploit the tripartite negativity to study the thermal correlations in a tripartite system, that is the three outer spins interacting with the central one in a spin-star system. We analyze the dependence of such correlations on the homogeneity of the interactions, starting from the case where central-outer spin interactions are identical and then focusing on the case where the three coupling constants are different. We single out some important differences between the negativity and the concurrence., Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures

We exploit a microscopically derived master equation for the study of STIRAP in the presence of decay from the auxiliary level toward the initial and final state, and compare our results with the predictions obtained from a phenomenological model previously used [P. A. Ivanov, N. V. Vitanov, and K. Bergmann, Phys. Rev. A 72, 053412 (2005)]. It is shown that our approach predicts a much higher efficiency. The effects of temperature are also taken into account, proving that in b-STIRAP thermal pumping can increase the efficiency of the population transfer., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

A master equation approach to the study of environmental effects in the adiabatic population transfer in three-state systems is presented. A systematic comparison with the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian approach [N. V. Vitanov and S. Stenholm, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 56}, 1463 (1997)] shows that in the weak coupling limit the two treatments lead to essentially the same results. Instead, in the strong damping limit the predictions are quite different: in particular the counterintuitive sequences in the STIRAP scheme turn out to be much more efficient than expected before. This point is explained in terms of quantum Zeno dynamics., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

We provide a microscopic derivation for the non-Markovian master equation for an atom-cavity system with cavity losses and show that they can induce population trapping in the atomic excited state, when the environment outside the cavity has a non-flat spectrum. Our results apply to hybrid solid state systems and can turn out to be helpful to find the most appropriate description of leakage in the recent developments of cavity quantum electrodynamics., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

Repeated observations of a quantum system interacting with another one can drive the latter toward a particular quantum state, irrespectively of its initial condition, because of an {\em effective non-unitary evolution}. If the target state is a pure one, the degree of purity of the system approaches unity, even when the initial condition of the system is a mixed state. In this paper we study the behavior of the purity from the initial value to the final one, that is unity. Depending on the parameters, after a finite number of measurements, the purity exhibits oscillations, that brings about a lower purity than that of the initial state, which is a point to be taken care of in concrete applications., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

Decoherence is believed to deteriorate the ability of a purification scheme that is based on the idea of driving a system to a pure state by repeatedly measuring another system in interaction with the former and hinder for a pure state to be extracted asymptotically. Nevertheless, we find a way out of this difficulty by deriving an analytic expression of the reduced density matrix for a two-qubit system immersed in a bath. It is shown that we can still extract a pure state if the environment brings about only dephasing effects. In addition, for a dissipative environment, there is a possibility of obtaining a dominant pure state when we perform a finite number of measurements., Comment: 14 pages

In population trapping the occupation of a decaying quantum level keeps a constant non-zero value. We show that an atom-cavity system interacting with an environment characterized by a non-flat spectrum, in the non-Markovian limit, exhibits such a behavior, effectively realizing the preservation of nonclassical states against dissipation. Our results allow to understand the role of cavity losses in hybrid solid state systems and pave the way to the proper description of leakage in the recently developed cavity quantum electrodynamic systems., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. A

A microscopic derivation of the master equation for the Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity losses is given, taking into account the terms in the dissipator which vary with frequencies of the order of the vacuum Rabi frequency. Our approach allows to single out physical contexts wherein the usual phenomenological dissipator turns out to be fully justified and constitutes an extension of our previous analysis [Scala M. {\em et al.} 2007 Phys. Rev. A {\bf 75}, 013811], where a microscopic derivation was given in the framework of the Rotating Wave Approximation., Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure

A quantum system put in interaction with another one that is repeatedly measured is subject to a non-unitary dynamics, through which it is possible to extract subspaces. This key idea has been exploited to propose schemes aimed at the generation of pure quantum states (purification). All such schemes have so far been considered in the ideal situations of isolated systems. In this paper, we analyze the influence of non-negligible interactions with environment during the extraction process, with the scope of investigating the possibility of purifying the state of a system in spite of the sources of dissipation. A general framework is presented and a paradigmatic example consisting of two interacting spins immersed in a bosonic bath is studied. The effectiveness of the purification scheme is discussed in terms of purity for different values of the relevant parameters and in connection with the bath temperature., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

In this paper we provide a microscopic derivation of the master equation for the Jaynes-Cummings model with cavity losses. We single out both the differences with the phenomenological master equation used in the literature and the approximations under which the phenomenological model correctly describes the dynamics of the atom-cavity system. Some examples wherein the phenomenological and the microscopic master equations give rise to different predictions are discussed in detail., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures New version with minor correction Accepted for publication on Physical Review A

The so-called Lindblad equation, a typical master equation describing the dissipative quantum dynamics, is shown to be solvable for finite-level systems in a compact form without resort to writing it down as a set of equations among matrix elements. The solution is then naturally given in an operator form, known as the Kraus representation. Following a few simple examples, the general applicability of the method is clarified., Comment: 9 pages

A novel perturbative treatment of the time evolution operator of a quantum system is applied to the model describing a Raman-driven trapped ion in order to obtain a suitable 'effective model'. It is shown that the associated effective Hamiltonian describes the system dynamics up to a certain transformation which may be interpreted as a 'dynamical dressing' of the effective model., Comment: Published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA/

New physical effects in the dynamics of an ion confined in an anisotropic two-dimensional Paul trap are reported. The link between the occurrence of such manifestations and the accumulation of geometric phase stemming from the intrinsic or controlled lack of symmetry in the trap is brought to light. The possibility of observing in laboratory these anisotropy-based phenomena is briefly discussed., Comment: 10 pages. Acta Physica Hungarica B 2005

In the spirit of Quantum Non-Demolition Measurements, we show that exploiting suitable vibronic couplings and repeatedly measuring the atomic population of a confined ion, it is possible to distill center of mass vibrational states with well defined square of angular momentum or, alternatively, angular momentum projection Schr\"odinger cat states., Comment: 7 pages

A new systematic strategy for steering the distillation process for a quantum system, that utilizes the so-called "pulsed" and "continuous" measurements on another quantum system in interaction with the former, is proposed. The distillation process characterized by the specific interaction between the two systems and the "pulsed" measurements is shown to be controllable through the "continuous" measurements, i.e., the quantum Zeno dynamics, providing an effective recipe to prefix the target., Comment: 4 pages, no figures