Caldeira-Leggett oscillator bath simulation of the Prokof'ev-Stamp spin bath in strong coupling limits

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that oscillator bath models can simulate the effects of spin bath models in strong coupling regimes, challenging the belief that they are fundamentally distinct at low temperatures.

Contribution

It shows that with proper parameter tuning, oscillator baths can replicate spin bath relaxation effects, unifying the understanding of their influence on quantum systems.

Findings

Oscillator bath can simulate spin bath relaxation rates.

Proper parameter selection aligns bias energy fluctuations.

The distinction between bath models is less significant at strong coupling.

Abstract

Open quantum systems are subject to interaction with their surrounding environments. The environments are in general complex and intractable. At low temperatures, quantum environments are mapped onto two simpler universality classes of models, namely oscillator bath and spin bath models. The two models are commonly recognized as completely distinct at strong coupling limits. In particular, it is believed, that they cause two different dissipative relaxation rates when they act on qubits. It is also believed that at such a limit the relaxation rate caused by the spin bath model cannot be simulated by the oscillator bath model. In this paper, I show, in contrast, that the oscillator bath model can simulate the effect of the spin bath model in the strong coupling limit of the spin bath. I demonstrate that, by choosing the right parameters for the oscillator bath model such that it induces the same rate and amount of bias energy fluctuations as those of the spin bath, the oscillator bath model can produce a relaxation rate equivalent to that of the spin bath model. This result implies that, as far as the relaxation rate is concerned, the distinction between the oscillator bath model and the spin bath model is far less than has been previously recognized.