# Pitfalls in the theory of carrier dynamics in semiconductor quantum dots: the single-particle basis vs. the many-particle configuration basis

## TL;DR

This paper highlights how the choice of basis states in quantum dot models can lead to misconceptions and artificial dependencies, affecting the interpretation of dephasing and Rabi oscillations in quantum optics.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of basis choice on carrier dynamics modeling and resolves discrepancies by incorporating the full system-reservoir interaction Hamiltonian.

## Key findings

- Basis choice can cause artificial dependencies in quantum dot models.
- Dephasing effects depend on the basis used for collapse operators.
- Full system-reservoir interaction resolves basis-dependent discrepancies.

## Abstract

We analyze quantum dot models used in current research for misconceptions that arise from the choice of basis states for the carriers. The examined models originate from semiconductor quantum optics, but the illustrated conceptional problems are not limited to this field. We demonstrate how the choice of basis states can imply a factorization scheme that leads to an artificial dependency between two, actually independent, quantities. Furthermore, we consider an open quantum dot-cavity system and show how the dephasing, generated by the dissipator in the von Neumann Lindblad equation, depends on the choice of basis states that are used to construct the collapse operators. We find that the Rabi oscillations of the s-shell exciton are either dephased by the dissipative decay of the p-shell exciton or remain unaffected, depending on the choice of basis states. In a last step we resolve this discrepancy by taking the full system-reservoir interaction Hamiltonian into account.