Photonic Simulation of System-Environment Interaction: Non-Markovian Process and Dynamical Decoupling

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how light in coupled photonic waveguides can simulate open quantum system dynamics, revealing the transition from non-Markovian to Markovian behavior and enabling control of energy dissipation through dynamical decoupling.

Contribution

It introduces a photonic platform for simulating system-environment interactions and controlling dissipation via phase modulation, bridging quantum dynamics and photonic engineering.

Findings

Transition from non-Markovian to Markovian dynamics observed

Energy evolution changes from oscillatory to exponential decay

Dissipation can be accelerated or inhibited using phase modulations

Abstract

The system-environment interaction is simulated by light propagating in coupled photonic waveguides. The profile of the electromagnetic field provides intuitive physical insight to study the Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics of open quantum systems. The transition from non-Markovian to Markovian process is demonstrated by increasing the size of environment, as the energy evolution changes from oscillating to an exponential decay, and the revival period increases. Moreover, the dynamical decoupling with a sequence of phase modulations is introduced to such a photonic open system to form a band structure in time dimension, where the energy dissipation can be significantly accelerated or inhibited. It opens the possibility to tune the dissipation in photonic system, similar to the dynamic decoupling of spins.