Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.
For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.

Thursday, May 1, 2008
12:30 PM to 2 PM

Speaker: Michael Zwolak, Los Alamos National Laboratory, T Division

TOPIC: Finite Representations of Continuum Environments

Abstract
Understanding dissipative and decohering processes is fundamental to the study of non-equilibrium systems and quantum computing, and such processes can even induce quantum phase transitions. A typical scenario is to have a system connected to a continuum environment, which acts as the source of dissipation or decoherence, or as a reservoir of particles. If the connection is strong or the environment has long-range correlations in time, the system dynamics are not easily separated from the dynamics of the environment. To study this situation numerically, one option is to simulate both the system and environment. This is a viable option so long as an efficient finite representation of the environment can be constructed. We will discuss procedures for constructing finite representations of the environment and compare their performance for solvable models of non-interacting bosons. We will also discuss applications to interacting systems.