Decoherence in adiabatic quantum evolution - application to Cooper pair pumping

TL;DR

This paper develops a generalized master equation to study how dissipation affects adiabatic quantum evolution, showing robustness of ground state dynamics in open systems, with application to Cooper pair pumping.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical framework for including dissipation in adiabatic quantum control, specifically deriving a master equation for open two-level systems.

Findings

Ground state dynamics are unaffected by environment at zero temperature.

The theory is successfully applied to Cooper pair pumping.

Adiabatic evolution remains robust despite dissipation.

Abstract

One of the challenges of adiabatic control theory is the proper inclusion of the effects of dissipation. Here, we study the adiabatic dynamics of an open two-level quantum system deriving a generalized master equation to consistently account for the combined action of the driving and dissipation. We demonstrate that in the zero temperature limit the ground state dynamics is not affected by environment. As an example, we apply our theory to Cooper pair pumping which demonstrates the robustness of ground state adiabatic evolution.