arXiv subjects

Alain Joye

Publications and source records attributed to Alain Joye.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The contact temperature of arbitrary quantum states

An intuitive scheme to assign a temperature to an arbitrary state of a quantum system is to investigate the heat flow resulting from the coupling to a thermometer. We introduce a simple model of a universal thermometer with the following property. When it is prepared in a Gibbs equilibrium state at inverse temperature $\beta\in\mathbb R$ and brought into thermal contact with a system in any state, the heat flow between the system and thermometer vanishes for a unique value of $\beta$. We call this value the contact temperature $\beta_{\rm op}\in\mathbb R$ of the system state. The thermometer is universal in that it yields a unique contact temperature for arbitrary states of finite dimensional quantum systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Dynamical Localization for General Scattering Quantum Walks

We consider quantum walks defined on arbitrary infinite graphs, parameterized by a family of scattering matrices attached to the vertices. Multiplying each scattering matrix by an i.i.d. random phase, we obtain a random scattering quantum walk. We prove dynamical localization for random scattering walks in a large-disorder regime. The result is based on a relation between fractional moment estimates and eigenfunction correlators of independent interest, which we establish for general random unitary operators.

math-ph↗

arXiv2024

Fermionic quantum walkers coupled to a bosonic reservoir

We analyse the discrete-time dynamics of a model of non-interacting fermions coupled to an infinite reservoir formed by a bosonic quantum walk on ${\mathbb Z}$. This dynamics consists of consecutive applications of free evolutions of the fermions and bosons followed by a local coupling between them. The unitary operator implementing this coupling accounts for energy exchanges between the system and reservoir while it preserves the number of fermions. The free fermion evolution is given by a second-quantized single-particle unitary operator satisfying some genericity assumptions. The free boson evolution is given by the second-quantized shift operator on ${\mathbb Z}$. We derive explicitly the Heisenberg dynamics of fermionic observables and obtain a systematic expansion in the large-coupling regime, which we control by using spectral methods. We also prove that the reduced state of the fermions converges in the large-time limit to a mixture of infinite-temperature Gibbs states in each particle sector.

math-ph↗

arXiv2024

Unitary and Open Scattering Quantum Walks on Graphs

We study a class of Unitary Quantum Walks on arbitrary graphs, parameterized by a family of scattering matrices. These Scattering Quantum Walks model the discrete dynamics of a system on the edges of the graph, with a scattering process at each vertex governed by the scattering matrix assigned to it. We show that Scattering Quantum Walks encompass several known Quantum Walks. Additionally, we introduce two classes of Open Scattering Quantum Walks on arbitrary graphs, also parameterized by scattering matrices: one class defined on the edges and the other on the vertices of the graph. We show that these walks give rise to proper Quantum Channels and describe their main spectral and dynamical properties, relating them to naturally associated classical Markov chains.

math-ph↗

arXiv2024

Exponential tail estimates for quantum lattice dynamics

We consider the quantum dynamics of a particle on a lattice for large times. Assuming translation invariance, and either discrete or continuous time parameter, the distribution of the ballistically scaled position $Q(t)/t$ converges weakly to a distribution that is compactly supported in velocity space, essentially the distribution of group velocity in the initial state. We show that the total probability of velocities strictly outside the support of the asymptotic measure goes to zero exponentially with $t$, and we provide a simple method to estimate the exponential rate uniformly in the initial state. Near the boundary of the allowed region the rate function goes to zero like the power 3/2 of the distance to the boundary. The method is illustrated in several examples.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Entropy Production of Quantum Reset Models

We analyze the entropy production of Quantum Reset Models (QRMs) corresponding to quantum dynamical semigroups driven by Lindbladians motivated by a probabilistic description of dissipation in an external environment. We investigate the strict positivity of entropy production for Lindbladians given as sums of QRMs, when the Hamiltonian of the total Lindbladian is split as an affine combination of Hamiltonians of the individual QRMs. In this setup, we derive conditions on the coefficients of the combination and on the reset states ensuring either positive or zero entropy production. Second, we deal with a tri-partite system subject at its ends to two independent QRMs and a weak coupling Hamiltonian. The latter is split as an affine combination of individual Hamiltonians, and we provide necessary and sufficient conditions ensuring strict positivity of the entropy production to leading order, with the possible exception of one affine combination. We apply these results to a physically motivated model and exhibit explicit expressions for the leading orders steady-state solution, entropy production and entropy fluxes. Moreover, these approximations are numerically shown to hold beyond the expected regimes.

math-ph↗

arXiv2022

The Adiabatic Wigner-Weisskopf Model

We consider a slowly varying time dependent d-level atom interacting with a photon field. Restricted to the single excitation atom-field sector, the model is a time-dependent generalization of the Wigner-Weisskopf model describing spontaneous emission of an atomic excitation into the radiation field. We analyze the dynamics of the atom and of the radiation field in the adiabatic and small coupling approximations, in various regimes. In particular, starting with an excited atomic state, we provide a description of both the radiative decay of the atom and of the buildup of the photon excitation in the field.

math-ph↗

arXiv2022

Markovian Repeated Interaction Quantum Systems

We study a class of dynamical semigroups $(\mathbb{L}^n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ that emerge, by a Feynman--Kac type formalism, from a random quantum dynamical system $(\mathcal{L}_{\omega_n}\circ\cdots\circ\mathcal{L}_{\omega_1}(\rho_{\omega_0}))_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$ driven by a Markov chain $(\omega_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$. We show that the almost sure large time behavior of the system can be extracted from the large $n$ asymptotics of the semigroup, which is in turn directly related to the spectral properties of the generator $\mathbb{L}$. As a physical application, we consider the case where the $\mathcal{L}_\omega$'s are the reduced dynamical maps describing the repeated interactions of a system $\mathcal{S}$ with thermal probes $\mathcal{C}_\omega$. We study the full statistics of the entropy in this system and derive a fluctuation theorem for the heat exchanges and the associated linear response formulas.

math-ph↗

arXiv2021

Adiabatic Lindbladian Evolution with Small Dissipators

We consider a time-dependent small quantum system weakly coupled to an environnement, whose effective dynamics we address by means of a Lindblad equation. We assume the Hamiltonian part of the Lindbladian is slowly varying in time and the dissipator part has small amplitude. We study the properties of the evolved state of the small system as the adiabatic parameter and coupling constant both go to zero, in various asymptotic regimes. In particular, we analyse the deviations of the transition probabilities of the small system between the instantaneous eigenspaces of the Hamiltonian with respect to their values in the purely Hamiltonian adiabatic setup, as a function of both parameters.

math-ph↗

arXiv2020

A Nonlinear Quantum Adiabatic Approximation

This paper is devoted to a generalisation of the quantum adiabatic theorem to a nonlinear setting. We consider a Hamiltonian operator which depends on the time variable and on a finite number of parameters and acts on a separable Hilbert space of which we select a fixed basis. We study an evolution equation in which this Hamiltonian acts on the unknown vector, while depending on coordinates of the unknown vector in the selected basis, thus making the equation nonlinear. We prove existence of solutions to this equation and consider their asymptotics in the adiabatic regime, i.e. when the Hamiltonian is slowly varying in time. Under natural spectral hypotheses, we prove the existence of normalised time dependent vectors depending on the Hamiltonian only, called instantaneous nonlinear eigenvectors, and show the existence of solutions which remain close to these vectors, up to a rapidly oscillating phase, in the adiabatic regime. We first investigate the case of bounded operators and then exhibit a set of spectral assumptions under which the result extends to unbounded Hamiltonians.

math-ph↗

arXiv2020

Perturbation Analysis of Quantum Reset Models

This paper is devoted to the analysis of Lindblad operators of Quantum Reset Models, describing the effective dynamics of tri-partite quantum systems subject to stochastic resets. We consider a chain of three independent subsystems, coupled by a Hamiltonian term. The two subsystems at each end of the chain are driven, independently from each other, by a reset Lindbladian, while the center system is driven by a Hamiltonian. Under generic assumptions on the coupling term, we prove the existence of a unique steady state for the perturbed reset Lindbladian, analytic in the coupling constant. We further analyze the large times dynamics of the corresponding CPTP Markov semigroup that describes the approach to the steady state. We illustrate these results with concrete exemples corresponding to realistic open quantum systems.

math-ph↗

arXiv2020

Fermionic walkers driven out of equilibrium

We consider a discrete-time non-Hamiltonian dynamics of a quantum system consisting of a finite sample locally coupled to several bi-infinite reservoirs of fermions with a translation symmetry. In this setup, we compute the asymptotic state, mean fluxes of fermions into the different reservoirs, as well as the mean entropy production rate of the dynamics. Formulas are explicitly expanded to leading order in the strength of the coupling to the reservoirs.

math-ph↗

arXiv2020

Adiabatic transitions in a two-level system coupled to a free Boson reservoir

We consider a time-dependent two-level quantum system interacting with a free Boson reservoir. The coupling is energy conserving and depends slowly on time, as does the system Hamiltonian, with a common adiabatic parameter $\varepsilon$. Assuming that the system and reservoir are initially decoupled, with the reservoir in equilibrium at temperature $T\ge 0$, we compute the transition probability from one eigenstate of the two-level system to the other eigenstate as a function of time, in the regime of small $\varepsilon$ and small coupling constant $λ$. We analyse the deviation from the adiabatic transition probability obtained in absence of the reservoir.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

Engineering stable quantum currents at bulk boundaries

We study transport properties of discrete quantum dynamical systems on the lattice, in particular Coined Quantum Walks and the Chalker--Coddington model. We prove existence of a non trivial charge transport and that the absolutely continuous spectrum covers the whole unit circle under mild assumptions. For Quantum Walks we exhibit explicit constructions of coins which imply existence of stable directed quantum currents along classical curves. The results are of topological nature and independent of the details of the model.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

Lower Bounds on the Localisation Length of Balanced Random Quantum Walks

We consider the dynamical properties of Quantum Walks defined on the d-dimensional cubic lattice, or the homogeneous tree of coordination number 2d, with site dependent random phases, further characterised by transition probabilities between neighbouring sites equal to 1/(2d). We show that the localisation length for these Balanced Random Quantum Walks can be expressed as a combinatorial expression involving sums over weighted paths on the considered graph. This expression provides lower bounds on the localisation length by restriction to paths with weight 1, which allows us to prove the localisation length diverges on the tree as d^2. On the cubic lattice, the method yields the lower bound 1/ln(2) for all d, and allows us to bound the localisation length from below by the correlation length of self-avoiding walks computed at 1/(2d)

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Chirality induced Interface Currents in the Chalker Coddington Model

We study transport properties of a Chalker-Coddington type model in the plane which presents asymptotically pure anti-clockwise rotation on the left and clockwise rotation on the right. We prove delocalisation in the sense that the absolutely continuous spectrum covers the whole unit circle. The result is of topological nature and independent of the details of the model.

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Landauer's Principle for Trajectories of Repeated Interaction Systems

We analyze Landauer's principle for repeated interaction systems consisting of a reference quantum system $\mathcal{S}$ in contact with an environment $\mathcal{E}$ which is a chain of independent quantum probes. The system $\mathcal{S}$ interacts with each probe sequentially, for a given duration, and the Landauer principle relates the energy variation of $\mathcal{E}$ and the decrease of entropy of $\mathcal{S}$ by the entropy production of the dynamical process. We consider refinements of the Landauer bound at the level of the full statistics (FS) associated to a two-time measurement protocol of, essentially, the energy of $\mathcal{E}$. The emphasis is put on the adiabatic regime where the environment, consisting of $T \gg 1$ probes, displays variations of order $T^{-1}$ between the successive probes, and the measurements take place initially and after $T$ interactions. We prove a large deviation principle and a central limit theorem as $T \to \infty$ for the classical random variable describing the entropy production of the process, with respect to the FS measure. In a special case, related to a detailed balance condition, we obtain an explicit limiting distribution of this random variable without rescaling. At the technical level, we obtain a non-unitary adiabatic theorem generalizing that of [Commun. Math. Phys. (2017) 349: 285] and analyze the spectrum of complex deformations of families of irreducible completely positive trace-preserving maps.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Thermalization of Fermionic Quantum Walkers

We consider the discrete time dynamics of an ensemble of fermionic quantum walkers moving on a finite discrete sample, interacting with a reservoir of infinitely many quantum particles on the one dimensional lattice. The reservoir is given by a fermionic quasifree state, with free discrete dynamics given by the shift, whereas the free dynamics of the non-interacting quantum walkers in the sample is defined by means of a unitary matrix. The reservoir and the sample exchange particles at specific sites by a unitary coupling and we study the discrete dynamics of the coupled system defined by the iteration of the free discrete dynamics acting on the unitary coupling, in a variety of situations. In particular, in absence of correlation within the particles of the reservoir and under natural assumptions on the sample's dynamics, we prove that the one- and two-body reduced density matrices of the sample admit large times limits characterized by the state of the reservoir which are independent of the free dynamics of the quantum walkers and of the coupling strength. Moreover, the corresponding asymptotic density profile in the sample is flat and the correlations of number operators have no structure, a manifestation of thermalization.

math-ph↗