Effective Hamiltonian theory of open quantum systems at strong coupling

TL;DR

This paper introduces the RCPT framework, a method to derive effective Hamiltonians for strongly coupled open quantum systems, enabling analytical insights into their nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamics.

Contribution

The RCPT approach provides a general, simple, and exact transformation-based method to analyze strong system-bath interactions in quantum systems.

Findings

Effective Hamiltonians with weakened environment coupling

Analytical understanding of quantum thermalization and transport

Insights into quantum thermodynamic machine performance

Abstract

We present the reaction-coordinate polaron-transform (RCPT) framework for generating effective Hamiltonian models to treat nonequilibrium open quantum systems at strong coupling with their surroundings. Our approach, which is based on two exact transformations of the Hamiltonian followed by its controlled truncation, ends with a new Hamiltonian with a weakened coupling to the environment. This new effective Hamiltonian mirrors the initial one, except that its parameters are dressed by the system-bath couplings. The power and elegance of the RCPT approach lie in its generality and in its mathematical simplicity, allowing for analytic work and thus profound understanding of the impact of strong system-bath coupling effects on open quantum system phenomena. Examples interrogated in this work include canonical models for quantum thermalization, charge and energy transport at the nanoscale, performance bounds of quantum thermodynamical machines such as absorption refrigerators and thermoelectric generators, as well as the equilibrium and nonequilibrium behavior of many-body dissipative spin chains.