Academic literature on the topic 'Quantum quench, out of equilibrium physics'

We use a simple holographic toy model to study global quantum quenches in strongly coupled, hyperscaling-violating-Lifshitz quantum field theories using entanglement entropy as a probe. Generalizing our conformal field theory results, we show that the holographic entanglement entropy of small subsystems can be written as a simple linear response relation. We use this relation to derive a time-dependent first law of entanglement entropy. In general, this law has a time-dependent term resembling relative entropy which we propose as a good order parameter to characterize out-of-equilibrium states in the post-quench evolution. We use these tools to study a broad class of quantum quenches in detail: instantaneous, power law, and periodic.

The sudden introduction of a local impurity in a Fermi sea leads to an anomalous disturbance of its quantum state that represents a local quench, leaving the system out of equilibrium and giving rise to the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe. The statistics of the work done describe the energy fluctuations produced by the quench, providing an accurate and detailed insight into the fundamental physics of the process. We present here a numerical approach to the non-equilibrium work distribution, supported by applications to phenomena occurring at very diverse energy ranges. One of them is the valence electron shake-up induced by photo-ionization of a core state in a fullerene molecule. The other is the response of an ultra-cold gas of trapped fermions to an embedded two-level atom excited by a fast pulse. Working at low thermal energies, we detect the primary role played by many-particle states of the perturbed system with one or two excited fermions. We validate our approach through the comparison with some photoemission data on fullerene films and previous analytical calculations on harmonically trapped Fermi gases.

When a parameter quench is performed in an isolated quantum system with a complete set of constants of motion, its out of equilibrium dynamics is considered to be well captured by the Generalized Gibbs Ensemble (GGE), characterized by a set {λα} of coefficients related to the constants of motion. We determine the most elementary GGE deviation from the equilibrium distribution that leads to detectable effects. By quenching a suitable local attractive potential in a one-dimensional electron system, the resulting GGE differs from equilibrium by only one single λα, corresponding to the emergence of an only partially occupied bound state lying below a fully occupied continuum of states. The effect is shown to induce optical gain, i.e., a negative peak in the absorption spectrum, indicating the stimulated emission of radiation, enabling one to identify GGE signatures in fermionic systems through optical measurements. We discuss the implementation in realistic setups.

Abstract The presence of a global internal symmetry in a quantum many-body system is reflected in the fact that the entanglement between its subparts is endowed with an internal structure, namely it can be decomposed as a sum of contributions associated to each symmetry sector. The symmetry resolution of entanglement measures provides a formidable tool to probe the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of quantum systems. Here, we study the time evolution of charge-imbalance-resolved negativity after a global quench in the context of free-fermion systems, complementing former works for the symmetry-resolved entanglement entropy. We find that the charge-imbalance-resolved logarithmic negativity shows an effective equipartition in the scaling limit of large times and system size, with a perfect equipartition for early and infinite times. We also derive and conjecture a formula for the dynamics of the charged Rényi logarithmic negativities. We argue that our results can be understood in the framework of the quasiparticle picture for the entanglement dynamics, and provide a conjecture that we expect to be valid for generic integrable models.

The concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking and off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO) are associated with Bose–Einstein condensation. However, as in the system of reduced dimension the effect of quantum fluctuation is dominating, the concept of ODLRO becomes more interesting, especially for the long-range interaction. In the present manuscript, we study the correlation dynamics triggered by lattice depth quench in a system of three dipolar bosons in a 1D triple-well optical lattice from the first principle using the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method for bosons (MCTDHB). Our main motivation is to explore how ODLRO develops and decays with time when the system is brought out-of-equilibrium by a sudden change in the lattice depth. We compare results of dipolar bosons with contact interaction. For forward quench ( V f > V i ) , the system exhibits the collapse–revival dynamics in the time evolution of normalized first- and second-order Glauber’s correlation function, time evolution of Shannon information entropy both for the contact as well as for the dipolar interaction which is reminiscent of the one observed in Greiner’s experiment [Nature, 415 (2002)]. We define the collapse and revival time ratio as the figure of merit ( τ ) which can uniquely distinguish the timescale of dynamics for dipolar interaction from that of contact interaction. In the reverse quench process ( V i > V f ) , for dipolar interaction, the dynamics is complex and the system does not exhibit any definite time scale of evolution, whereas the system with contact interaction exhibits collapse–revival dynamics with a definite time-scale. The long-range repulsive tail in the dipolar interaction inhibits the spreading of correlation across the lattice sites.

Abstract The study of the entanglement dynamics plays a fundamental role in understanding the behaviour of many-body quantum systems out of equilibrium. In the presence of a globally conserved charge, further insights are provided by the knowledge of the resolution of entanglement in the various symmetry sectors. Here, we carry on the program we initiated in Parez et al (2021 Phys. Rev. B 103 L041104), for the study of the time evolution of the symmetry resolved entanglement in free fermion systems. We complete and extend our derivations also by defining and quantifying a symmetry resolved mutual information. The entanglement entropies display a time delay that depends on the charge sector that we characterise exactly. Both entanglement entropies and mutual information show effective equipartition in the scaling limit of large time and subsystem size. Furthermore, we argue that the behaviour of the charged entropies can be quantitatively understood in the framework of the quasiparticle picture for the spreading of entanglement, and hence we expect that a proper adaptation of our results should apply to a large class of integrable systems. We also find that the number entropy grows logarithmically with time before saturating to a value proportional to the logarithm of the subsystem size.

Linear arrays of trapped and laser-cooled atomic ions are a versatile platform for studying strongly interacting many-body quantum systems. Effective spins are encoded in long-lived electronic levels of each ion and made to interact through laser-mediated optical dipole forces. The advantages of experiments with cold trapped ions, including high spatio-temporal resolution, decoupling from the external environment and control over the system Hamiltonian, are used to measure quantum effects not always accessible in natural condensed matter samples. In this review, we highlight recent work using trapped ions to explore a variety of non-ergodic phenomena in long-range interacting spin models, effects that are heralded by the memory of out-of-equilibrium initial conditions. We observe long-lived memory in static magnetizations for quenched many-body localization and prethermalization, while memory is preserved in the periodic oscillations of a driven discrete time crystal state. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Breakdown of ergodicity in quantum systems: from solids to synthetic matter’.

Quenching and annealing are extreme opposites in the time evolution of a quantum system: Annealing explores equilibrium phases of a Hamiltonian with slowly changing parameters and can be exploited as a tool for solving complex optimization problems. In contrast, quenches are sudden changes of the Hamiltonian, producing a non-equilibrium situation. Here, we investigate the relation between the two cases. Specifically, we show that the minimum of the annealing gap, which is an important bottleneck of quantum annealing algorithms, can be revealed from a dynamical quench parameter which describes the dynamical quantum state after the quench. Combined with statistical tools including the training of a neural network, the relation between quench and annealing dynamics can be exploited to reproduce the full functional behavior of the annealing gap from the quench data. We show that the partial or full knowledge about the annealing gap which can be gained in this way can be used to design optimized quantum annealing protocols with a practical time-to-solution benefit. Our results are obtained from simulating random Ising Hamiltonians, representing hard-to-solve instances of the exact cover problem.

We calculate the dynamics of local and non-local correlation functions of one and threedimensional weakly interacting Bose gas after an interaction quench. Within the Bogoliubov approximation we discuss the resulting quasi-steady prethermal state and relaxation to it. We discuss the deacay rates of Bogoliubov quasi-particles characterizing the expected departure from the prethermal state towards a fully thermalized one. We conclude that prethermalization in this situation manifest as a crossover.

The physics of ultracold quantum gases has been the subject of a long-lasting and intense research activity, which started almost a century ago with purely theoretical studies and had a fluorishing experimental development after the implementation of laser and evaporative cooling techniques that led to the first realization of a Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) over 25 years ago. In recent years, a great interest in ultracold atoms has developed for their use as platforms for quantum technologies, given the high degree of control and tunability offered by ultracold atom systems. These features make ultracold atoms an ideal test bench for simulating and studying experimentally, in a controlled environment, physical phenomena analogous to those occurring in other, more complicated, or even inaccessible systems, which is the idea at the heart of quantum simulation. In the rapidly developing field of quantum technologies, it is highly important to acquire an in-depth understanding of the state of the quantum many-body system that is used, and of the processes needed to reach the desired state. The preparation of the system in a given target state often involves the crossing of second order phase transitions, bringing the system strongly out-of-equilibrium. A better understanding of the out-of-equilibrium processes occurring in the vicinity of the transition, and of the relaxation dynamics towards the final equilibrium condition, is crucial in order to produce well-controlled quantum states in an efficient way. In this thesis I present the results of the research activity that I performed during my PhD at the BEC1 laboratory of the BEC center, working on ultracold gases of 23Na atoms in an elongated harmonic trap. This work had two main goals: the accurate determination of the equilibrium properties of a Bose gas at finite temperature, by the measurement of its equation of state, and the investigation of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics occurring when a Bose Einstein condensate is prepared by cooling a thermal cloud at a finite rate across the BEC phase transition.To study the equilibrium physics of a trapped atomic cloud, it is crucial to be able to observe its density distribution in situ. This requires a high optical resolution to accurately obtain the density profile of the atomic distribution, from which thermodynamic quantities can then be extracted. In particular, in a partially condensed atomic cloud at finite temperature, it is challenging to resolve well also the boundaries of the BEC, where the condensate fraction rapidly drops in a narrow spatial region. This required an upgrade of the experimental apparatus in order to obtain a high enough resolution. I designed, tested and implemented in the experimental setup new imaging systems for all main directions of view. Particular attention was paid for the vertical imaging system, which was designed to image the condensates in trap with a resolution below 2 μm, with about a factor 4 improvement compared to the previous setup. The implementation of the new imaging systems involved a partial rebuilding of the experimental apparatus used for cooling the atoms. This created the occasion for an optimization of the whole system to obtain more stable working conditions. Concurrently I also realized and included in the experiment an optical setup for the use of a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) to project time-dependent arbitrary light patterns on the atoms, creating optical potentials that can be controlled at will. The use of this device opens up exciting future scenarios where it will be possible to locally modify the trapping potential and to create well-controlled barriers moving through the atomic cloud. Another challenge in imaging the density distribution in situ is determined by the fact that the maximum optical density (OD) of the BEC, in the trap center, exceeds the low OD of the thermal tails by several orders of magnitude. In order to obtain an accurate image of the whole density profile, we developed a minimally destructive, multi-shot imaging technique, based on the partial transfer of a fraction of atoms to an auxiliary state, which is then probed. Taking multiple images at different extraction fractions, we are able to reconstruct the whole density profile of the atomic cloud avoiding saturation and maintaining a good signal to noise ratio. This technique, together with the improvements in the imaging resolution, has allowed us to accurately obtain the optical density profile of the Bose gas in trap, from which the 3D density profile was then calculated applying an inverse Abel transform, taking advantage of the symmetry of the trap. From images of the same cloud after a time-of-flight expansion, we measured the temperature of the gas. From these quantities we could find the pressure as a function of the density and temperature, determining the canonical equation of state of the weakly interacting Bose gas in equilibrium at finite temperature. These measurements also allowed us to clearly observe the non-monotonic temperature behavior of the chemical potential near the critical point for the phase transition, a feature that characterizes also other superfluid systems, but that had never been observed before in weakly interacting Bose gases. The second part of this thesis work is devoted to the study of the dynamical processes that occur during the formation of the BEC order parameter within a thermal cloud. The cooling at finite rate across the Bose-Einstein condensation transition brings the system in a strongly out-of-equilibrium state, which is worth investigating, together with the subsequent relaxation towards an equilibrium state. This is of interest also in view of achieving a better understanding of second order phase transitions in general, since such phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and relevant also in other platforms for quantum technologies. A milestone result in the study of second order phase transitions is given by the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which provides a simple model capturing important aspects of the evolution of a system that crosses a second-order phase transition at finite rate. It is based on the principle that in an extended system the symmetry breaking associated with a continuous phase transition can take place only locally. This causes the formation of causally disconnected domains of the order parameter, at the boundaries of which topological defects can form, whose number and size scale with the rate at which the transition is crossed, following a universal power law. It was originally developed in the context of cosmology, but was later successfully tested in a variety of systems, including superfluid helium, superconductors, trapped ions and ultracold atoms. The BEC phase transition represents in this context a paradigmatic test-bench, given the high degree of control at which this second-order phase transition can be crossed by means of cooling ramps at different rates. Already early experiments investigated the formation of the BEC order parameter within a thermal cloud, after quasi-instantaneous temperature quenches or very slow evaporative cooling. In the framework of directly testing the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, further experiments were performed, both in 2D and 3D systems, focusing on the emergence of coherence and on the statistics of the spontaneously generated topological defects as a function of the cooling rate. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism, however, does not fully describe the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the system at the transition, nor the post-quench interaction mechanisms between domains that lead to coarse-graining. Most theoretical models are based on a direct linear variation of a single control parameter, e.g. the temperature, across the transition. In real experiments, the cooling process is controlled by the tuning of other experimental parameters and a global temperature might not even be well defined, in a thermodynamic sense, during the whole process. Moreover, the temperature variation is usually accompanied by the variation of other quantities, such as the number of atoms and the collisional rate, making it difficult to accurately describe the system and predict the post-quench properties. Recent works included effects going beyond the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, such as the inhomogeneity introduced by the trapping potential, the role of atom number losses, and the saturation of the number of defects for high cooling rates. These works motivate further studies, in particular of the dynamics taking place at early times, close to the crossing of the critical point. The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to further investigate the timescales associated to the formation and evolution of the BEC order parameter and its spatial fluctuations, as a function of the rate at which the transition point is crossed. We performed experiments producing BECs by means of cooling protocols that are commonly used in cold-atom laboratories, involving evaporative cooling in a magnetic trap. We explored a wide range of cooling rates across the transition and found a universal scaling for the growth of the BEC order parameter with the cooling rate and a finite delay in its formation. The latter was already observed in earlier works, but for a much more limited range of cooling rates. The evolution of the fluctuations of the order parameter was also investigated, with an analysis of the timescale of their decay during the relaxation of the system, from an initial strongly out-of-equilibrium condition to a final equilibrium state. This thesis is structured as follows: The first chapter presents the theoretical background, starting with a brief introduction to the concept of Bose Einstein condensation and a presentation of different models describing the thermodynamics of an equilibrium Bose gas. The second part of this chapter then deals with the out-of-equilibrium dynamics that is inevitably involved in the crossing of a second-order phase transition such as the one for Bose-Einstein condensation. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism is briefly reviewed and beyond KZ effects are pointed out, motivating a more detailed investigation of the timescales involved in the BEC formation. In the second chapter, I describe the experimental apparatus that we use to cool and confine the atoms. Particular detail is dedicated to the parts that have been upgraded during my PhD, such as the imaging system. In the third chapter I show our experimental results on the measurement of the equation of state of the weakly interacting uniform Bose gas at finite temperature. In the fourth chapter I present our results on the out-of-equilibrium dynamics in the formation of the condensate order parameter and its spatial fluctuations, as a function of different cooling rates.

Quasi-one-dimensional quantum models are ideal for theoretically exploring the physical phenomena associated with strong correlations. In this thesis we study three examples where strong correlations play an important role in the static or dynamic properties of the system. Firstly, we examine the behaviour of a doped fermionic two-leg ladder in which umklapp interactions are present. Such interactions arise at special band fillings and can be induced by the formation of charge density wave order in an array of two-leg ladders with long-range (three-dimensional) interactions. For the umklapp which arises from the half-filling of one of the bands, we show that the low-energy theory has a number of phases, including a strong coupling regime in which the dominant fluctuations are superconducting in nature. These superconducting fluctuations carry a finite wave vector – they are the one-dimensional analogue of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superconductivity. In a second example, we consider a quantum spin model which captures the essential one-dimensional physics of CoNb₂O₆, a quasi-one-dimensional Ising ferromagnet. Motivated by high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering experiments, we calculate the dynamical structure in the paramagnetic phase and show that a small misalignment of the transverse field can lead to quasi-particle breakdown – a surprising broadening in the single particle mode observed in experiment. Finally, we study the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a model with tuneable integrability breaking. When integrability is broken by the presence of weak interactions, we show that the system relaxes to a non-thermal state on intermediate time scales, the so-called “prethermalization plateau”. We describe the approximately stationary behaviour in this regime by constructing a generalised Gibbs ensemble with charges deformed to leading order in perturbation theory. Expectation values of these charges are time-independent, but interestingly the charges do not commute with the Hamiltonian to leading order in perturbation theory. Increasing the strength of the integrability breaking interactions leads to behaviour compatible with thermalisation. In each case we use a combination of perturbative analytical calculations and non-perturbative numerical computations to study the problem at hand.

Le domaine des problèmes quantiques à N-corps à l'équilibre et hors d'équilibre sont des sujets majeurs de la Physique et de la Physique de la matière condensée en particulier. Les propriétés d'équilibre de nombreux systèmes unidimensionnels en interaction sont bien comprises d'un point de vue théorique, des chaînes de spins aux théories quantiques des champs dans le continue. Ces progrès ont été rendus possibles par le développement de nombreuses techniques puissantes, comme, par exemple, l'ansatz de Bethe, le groupe de renormalisation, la bosonisation, les états produits de matrices ou la théorie des champs invariante conforme. Même si les propriétés à l'équilibre de nombreux modèles soient connues, ceci n'est en général pas suffisant pour décrire leurs comportements hors d'équilibre, et ces derniers restent moins explorés et beaucoup moins bien compris. Les modèles d'impuretés quantiques représentent certains des modèles à N-corps les plus simples. Mais malgré leur apparente simplicité ils peuvent capturer plusieurs phénomènes expérimentaux importants, de l'effet Kondo dans les métaux aux propriétés de transports dans les nanostructures, comme les points quantiques. Dans ce travail nous considérons un modèle d'impureté appelé "modèle de niveau résonnant en interaction" (IRLM). Ce modèle décrit des fermions sans spin se propageant dans deux fils semi-infinis qui sont couplés à un niveau résonant -- appelé point ou impureté quantique -- via un terme de saut et une répulsion Coulombienne. Nous nous intéressons aux situations hors d'équilibre où un courant de particules s'écoule à travers le point quantique, et étudions les propriétés de transport telles que le courant stationnaire (en fonction du voltage), la conductance différentielle, le courant réfléchi, le bruit du courant ou encore l'entropie d'intrication. Nous réalisons des simulations numériques de la dynamique du modèle avec la méthode du groupe de renormalisation de la matrice densité dépendent du temps (tDMRG), qui est basée sur une description des fonctions d'onde en terme d'états produits de matrices. Nous obtenons des résultats de grande précision concernant les courbes courant-voltage ou bruit-voltage de l'IRLM, dans un grand domaine de paramètres du modèle (voltage, force de l'interaction, amplitude de saut vers le dot, etc.). Ces résultats numériques sont analysés à la lumière de résultats exacts de théorie des champs hors d'équilibre qui ont été obtenus pour un modèle similaire à l'IRLM, le modèle de Sine-Gordon avec bord (BSG). Cette analyse est en particulier basée sur l'identification d'une échelle d'énergie Kondo et d'exposants décrivant les régimes de petit et grand voltage. Aux deux points particuliers où les modèles sont connus comme étant équivalents, nos résultats sont en accord parfait avec la solution exacte. En dehors de ces deux points particuliers nous trouvons que les courbes de transport de l'IRLM et du modèle BSG demeurent très proches, ce qui était inattendu et qui reste dans une certaine mesure inexpliqué
The fields of in- and out-of-equilibrium quantum many-body systems are major topics in Physics, and in condensed-matter Physics in particular. The equilibrium properties of one-dimensional problems are well studied and understood theoretically for a vast amount of interacting models, from lattice spin chains to quantum fields in a continuum. This progress was allowed by the development of diverse powerful techniques, for instance, Bethe ansatz, renormalization group, bosonization, matrix product states and conformal field theory. Although the equilibrium characteristics of many models are known, this is in general not enough to describe their non-equilibrium behaviors, the latter often remain less explored and much less understood. Quantum impurity models represent some of the simplest many-body problems. But despite their apparent simplicity, they can capture several important experimental phenomena, from the Kondo effect in metals to transport in nanostructures such as point contacts or quantum dots. In this thesis consider a classic impurity model - the interacting resonant level model (IRLM). The model describes spinless fermions in two semi-infinite leads that are coupled to a resonant level -- called quantum dot or impurity -- via weak tunneling and Coulomb repulsion. We are interested in out-of-equilibrium situations where some particle current flows through the dot, and study transport characteristics like the steady current (versus voltage), differential conductance, backscattered current, current noise or the entanglement entropy. We perform extensive state-of-the-art computer simulations of model dynamics with the time-dependent density renormalization group method (tDMRG) which is based on a matrix product state description of the wave functions. We obtain highly accurate results concerning the current-voltage and noise-voltage curves of the IRLM in a wide range parameter of the model (voltage bias, interaction strength, tunneling amplitude to the dot, etc.).These numerical results are analyzed in the light of some exact out-of-equilibrium field-theory results that have been obtained for a model similar to the IRLM, the boundary sine-Gordon model (BSG).This analysis is in particular based on identifying an emerging Kondo energy scale and relevant exponents describing the high- and low- voltage regimes. At the two specific points where the models are known to be equivalent our results agree perfectly with the exact solution. Away from these two points, we find that, within the precision of our simulations, the transport curves of the IRLM and BSG remain very similar, which was not expected and which remains somewhat unexplained

Lo studio della dinamica dei sistemi quantistici fuori dall’equilibrio ha introdotto delle problematiche ancora irrisolte in fisica. Negli ultimi anni si è assistito a un enorme progesso teorico in questo campo, mosso da incredibili progressi tecnologici sia nell’ambito di gas atomici e molecolari a basse temperature, che hanno reso possibile la manipolazione di sistemi quantistici con molti gradi di libertà, che in quello di algoritmi in grado di simulare l’evoluzione temporale. In questa lavoro rivolgiamo la nostra attenzione su di un semplice paradigma: lo studio della dinamica fuori dall’equilibrio di sistemi quantistici isolati unidimensionali a seguito della variazione di uno o più parametri del sistema (quench quantistico). In particolare viene studiata la dinamica di catene di spin con simmetria Zn e come questa venga modificata dalla rottura esplicita di tale simmetria. La parte originale del lavoro è nello studio della propagazione dell’entanglement nel modello di Potts con campo longitudinale nella sua fase paramagnetica, dove si è osservato, come recentemente nel modello di Ising con campo longitudinale, un repentino aumento nel tasso di produzione di entanglement. Questo si associa alla comparsa di una nuova particella nello spettro dell’Hamiltoniana dopo il quench. Il fenomeno viene spiegato come la versione fuori dall’equilibrio del noto paradosso di Gibbs. Tutti i risultati numerici della tesi sono stati ottenuti con l’algoritmo iTEBD sviluppato dall’autore.

One of the most relevant aspects of thermodynamics is its universality. Its prescriptions are ubiquitous in the characterizaton of the energy transfer between systems at equilibrium, even at the nanoscale, where quantum effects start to become important. In these models the energy balance is completely described in terms of universal quantities, like the Helmoltz free energy and the Boltzmann entropy, while the probabilistic fluctations of work, heat end particle number are tipically negligible making equilibirum thermodynamics essentially a deterministic theory. There are, however, plenty of fields in which the equilibrium approach is too limiting, for instance when dealing with steady state and driven heat engines, researching efficient quantum probes in metrology and even studying decoherence phenomena in quantum computation. In the non equilibrium scenario many specific details, usually negligible in the standard approach, become relevant and a more accurate knowledge of the dynamics is necessary to improve the capacity of controlling, measuring and manipulating energy, whose puctuations also become larger and larger making the theory intrinsecally stochastic. The characterization of out of equilibrium quantum system is the principal aim of this manuscript, which encompasses several aspects of the field. A perturbative expansion for slowly driven master equations is derived, reproducing the quasi static equilibrium trajectory for infinitely slow modulations and providing a compact formula for calculating the deviations on such a behavior. The expansion turns also to be succesful for the description of low dissipation heat engines, providing interesting connections between some celebrated efficiencies at maximum power (like the Schmiedl Seifert and Curzon Ahlborn ones [34, 37]) and the spectral density of the baths inducing thermalization.

Dans cette thèse nous étudions théoriquement de systèmes dissipatifs pompés,décrits par une équation maîtresse de Lindblad. En particulier, nous adressons les problématiques liés à l’émergence de phénomènes critiques. Nous présentons une théorie générale reliant les transitions de phase du premier et deuxième ordres aux propriétés spectrales du superopérateur liouvillien. Dans la région critique, nous déterminons la forme générale de l’état stationnaire et de la matrice propre du liouvillien associée à son gap spectral. Nous discutons aussi l’utilisation de trajectoires quantiques individuelles afin de révéler l’apparition des transitions de phase. En ayant dérivé une théorie générale, nous étudions le modèle de Kerr en présence de pompage à un photon (cohérent) et à deux photons (paramétrique) ainsi que de dissipation. Nous explorons les propriétés dynamiques d’une transition de phase du premier ordre dans un modèle de Bose-Hubbard dissipatif et d’une de second ordre dans un modèle XYZ dissipatif d’Heisenberg. Enfin, nous avons considéré la physique des cavités soumises à de la dissipation à un et deux photons ainsi qu’un pompage à deux photons, obtenu par ingénierie de réservoirs. Nous avons démontré que l’état stationnaire unique est un mélange statistique de deux états chats de Schrödinger, malgré de fortes pertes à un photon.Nous proposons et étudions un protocole de rétroaction pour la génération d’états chat purs
In this thesis we theoretically study driven-dissipative nonlinear systems, whosedynamics is capture by a Lindblad master equation. In particular, we investigate theemergence of criticality in out-of-equilibrium dissipative systems. We present a generaland model-independent spectral theory relating first- and second-order dissipative phasetransitions to the spectral properties of the Liouvillian superoperator. In the critical region,we determine the general form of the steady-state density matrix and of the Liouvillianeigenmatrix whose eigenvalue defines the Liouvillian spectral gap. We discuss the relevanceof individual quantum trajectories to unveil phase transitions. After these general results,we analyse the inset of criticality in several models. First, a nonlinear Kerr resonator in thepresence of both coherent (one-photon) and parametric (two-photon) driving and dissipation.We then explore the dynamical properties of the coherently-driven Bose-Hubbard and of thedissipative XYZ Heisenberg model presenting a first-order and a second-order dissipativephase transition, respectively. Finally, we investigate the physics of photonic Schrödingercat states in driven-dissipative resonators subject to engineered two-photon processes andone-photon losses. We propose and study a feedback protocol to generate a pure cat-likesteady state

An account of Max Planck's construction of his theory of blackbody radiation, summarizing the established physics on which he drew. In the last year of the nineteenth century, Max Planck constructed a theory of blackbody radiation—the radiation emitted and absorbed by nonreflective bodies in thermal equilibrium with one another—and his work ushered in the quantum revolution in physics. In this book, three physicists trace Planck's discovery. They follow the trail of Planck's thinking by constructing a textbook of sorts that summarizes the established physics on which he drew. By offering this account, the authors explore not only how Planck deployed his considerable knowledge of the physics of his era but also how Einstein and others used and interpreted Planck's work. Planck did not set out to lay the foundation for the quantum revolution but to study a universal phenomenon for which empirical evidence had been accumulating since the late 1850s. The authors explain the nineteenth-century concepts that informed Planck's discovery, including electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. In addition, the book offers the first translations of important papers by Ludwig Boltzmann and Wilhelm Wien on which Planck's work depended.

Abstract Fluctuation-induced forces (FIFs) are prevalent in nature, covering a plethora of phenomena spanning biophysics to cosmology. The common ingredients are: (i) A fluctuating medium that can be described by a probability distribution; and (ii) External objects whose presence constrains (or somehow modifies) these fluctuations. The overall strength of the interaction is proportional to the magnitude of undistorted fluctuations; while its range is set by the extent of correlations of the fluctuations. In this Chapter we focus on some interesting cases when the interactions are long–ranged and arise from scale free fluctuations. We first discuss the universality of FIF in equilibrium (set by $k_B T$ and $\hbar$ for thermal and quantum fluctuations) using tools from statistical mechanics and field-theory. The dependence of FIF on boundary shapes is explored next in the context of polymers; and finally we conclude by considering FIF in non-equilibrium settings with conservation laws.

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a pair of qubits made of two-level atoms separated in space with distance r and interacting with one common electromagnetic field but not directly with each other. Our calculation makes a weak coupling assumption, but no Born or Markov approximation. We derived a non-Markovian master equation for the evolution of the reduced density matrix of the two-qubit system after integrating out the electromagnetic field modes. It contains a Markovian part with a Lindblad type operator and a nonMarkovian contribution, the physics of which is the main focus of this study. We use the concurrence function as a measure of quantum entanglement between the two qubits. Two classes of states are studied in detail: Class A is a one parameter family of states which are the superposition of the highest energy |I〉 ≡ |11〉 and lowest energy |O〉 ≡ |00〉 states, υiz, |A〉≡p|I〉+(1−p)|O〉, with 0 ≤ p ≤ 1; and Class B states |B〉 are linear combinations of the symmetric |+〉=12(|01〉+|10〉) and the antisymmetric |−〉=12(|01〉−|10〉) Bell states.