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 | Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Physica Scripta

Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101 (8pp) doi:10.1088/0031-8949/91/5/055101

Approximation to the quantum planar rotor

coupled to a nite temperature bath
P C Lpez Vzquez1 and A Garca2
1
Departamento de Ciencias Bsicas, Tecnolgico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara, Av. General Ramn
Corona No. 2514, C P 45201, Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico
2
Departamento de Matemticas, Universidad de Guadalajara, Blvd. Marcelino Garca Barragan y Calzada
Olmpica, C P 44840, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

E-mail: pabocarloslopez@itesm.mx

Received 2 November 2015, revised 13 March 2016

Accepted for publication 4 April 2016
Published 22 April 2016

Abstract
An approximation to the description of the dynamics of a quantum planar rotor coupled to a
nite temperature bath is derived by considering a microscopic model of interaction based on an
angular momentum exchange with two different environments coupled independently to the
positive and negative angular momentum spectrum. A non-Lindblad master equation is derived
for this microscopic model by using the BornMarkov approximation in the weak coupling limit.
We show that under this approximation the rotor dynamics presents the correct damping
behavior of the motion and the thermal state reached by the rotor is in the form of Boltzmann
distribution. The case of the quantum rotor in an external uniform eld and the quantum kicked
rotor are briey discussed as exemplication.
Keywords: quantum planar rotor, quantum master equation, nite temperature bath, quantum
pendulum, quantum kicked rotor
(Some gures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction
There are many systems whose dynamical behavior corre-
sponds to the dynamics of the planar rotor, for example, the
quantum kicked rotor which has been extensively studied in
part because of the different regimes that can be achieved
depending on the kick parameters, such as quantum reso-
nances [1] or Anderson localization [2, 3] and also because of
the experimental feasibility [4, 5]. Another important example
are the synthetic molecular motors, see e.g. [68] and the
references therein. These systems are molecular machines
capable of rotation around a xed axis generated by sources
of unidirectional driving. For them, the control of the direc-
tion of motion is one of the major challenges due to the
unavoidable random Brownian inuence of the environment
that produces a signicant thermally driven motion. The
problem has been partially diminished by resting the mole-
cules over surfaces where the thermal uctuations are less
signicant but not completely neglected. In the ratchet-type
motors, the thermal uctuations are precisely the source of the
motion. Nanomotors based on nano-electromechanical
devices (NEMS), have also been explored, e.g. [9, 10]. In [9],
a prototype of a nanomotor was made using a metal plate
mounted on a multi walled carbon nanotube which serves as
the shaft of the rotatory motion of the plate. In [10], a nano
electromechanical rotor is conceptualized as a rigid nanorod
free to rotate around a xed axis with two conducting islands
located at the extremities of the rod. In this case electron
tunneling and an external xed bias are the source of the
driving. Even when the dynamics of these devices can be
mostly described by classical physics, the inclusion to a much
smaller scale is expected. In fact quantum motors based on
ultracold atoms placed in a ring-shaped optical lattice subject
to a ac-driven by applying a pulsating magnetic eld have
been explored in [11, 12].
A fundamental requirement for the study of the quantum
rotor dynamics is the inclusion of damping and temperature
due to the interaction with a thermal reservoir. Although there
has been many studies in the quantum planar rotor, only very
few cases have aboard the open quantum planar dynamics e.g.
[1317], and there is no a unied consensus on how to
introduce the environmental effects to the dynamics. The

0031-8949/16/055101+08$33.00 1 2016 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Printed in the UK

Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101
canonical pair used to describes the dynamics of the quantum
planar rotor are the angle-angular momentum which we
denote here by, {f, L}. The angular momentum, has an
unbounded spectrum that includes positive and negative
integers while the angle is a periodic variable. This periodicity
makes the angle variable to be a multivalued or discontinuous
variable, see e.g. [1820], therefore, quantization of the
conjugate angle variable has been in debate for many years.
This makes the description of the interaction to an external
environment to be a quite subtle topic since many models of
interaction are based in the coupling of the conjugate position
variable. In [13], it was proposed to couple the rotor to two
different thermal baths through the Cartesian position vari-
ables of the rotor. The baths were coupled independently to
the x and y coordinates respectively and the position variables
of the rotor were transformed into the polar representation.
Afterwards, the two different baths are considered to be
identical. For this type of model, the particle moving along
the ring experiences a non-homogeneous environment in
different parts of the ring and only in the high temperature
limit, the steady state of the system converges to the expected
homogeneous mixture in the energy eigenstates. In [14], the
interaction with the environment happens through angular
momentum exchange by dening angular momentum ladder
operators. A master equation is derived for the zero temper-
ature case and certain constrains on the coupling are imposed
to ensure that only single quanta is absorbed by the
environment and not to correlate positive and negative parts
of the angular momentum spectrum. Nevertheless, it becomes
unclear how to apply the interaction model to the case of a
non-zero temperature environment. Additional approxima-
tions to quantum master equations can be derived in the hight
temperature limit, by considering a microscopic model of
interaction based on the scattering of background gas particles
as proposed in [21] and more general classes of thermal baths
can be studied by means of the quantum state diffusion
methods, e.g. [22], although no model has been derived for
the nite temperature limit.
In the present paper we want to explore an approximation
based on a microscopic model of interaction of angular
momentum exchange with the environment as in [14] but
with the positive and negative parts of the spectrum of the
angular momentum coupled independently to two different
baths. The two baths are dened to have equivalent spectral
densities and the coupling rates are taken the same for both
couplings, similar to [13]. So far, no approximation has been
carried out for studying the dynamics of the quantum planar
rotor in the regime of the nite temperatures. The model of
interaction we propose, successfully provides the tools for
developing a master equation for the quantum planar rotor
coupled to a nite temperature bath.
This paper is organized as follows: In section 2 we dis-
cuss the quantum planar rotor model. In section 3 we present
the microscopic model of interaction between the planar rotor
and the nite temperature environment. In section 4 the nite
temperature master equation obtained from the weak coupling
limit and the BornMarkov approximation is presented and in
4.1 we show that this master equation describes a Boltzmann
2
P C L Vzquez and A Garca
steady state distribution for the system in the long time limit.
As exemplications of the applications of our model, in
sections 5 and 6 we briey address the quantum pendulum
and the quantum kicked rotor, both in contact with a thermal
bath, and nally in the appendix, we show some details of the
calculation of the master equation.
2. The quantum planar rotor
The quantum planar rotor is a quantum particle that is con-
strained to move freely along a ring. The Hamiltonian of this
system is
2
L
Hrot = (1 )
2I
where I is the moment of inertia and the angular momentum
here denoted by L , generates the planar rotations by an angle
f, and it is directed along the perpendicular axis to the
rotation plane. Due to the periodic condition of the angle f,
the angular momentum possess a discrete and unbounded
spectrum that includes positive and negative integers. By
denoting as l the basis of the angular momentum eigenstates,
the angular momentum is represented in its eigenbasis as:
L = l =- ll l. The positive and negative integers of the
angular momentum, identify the direction of the rotations. For
this system, the conjugate variables are the angle f, which is a
continuous and periodic variable with period 2p , and the
angular momentum, which can only take integer multiples of
, and therefore the associated phase space is the discrete
cylinder 1 , see e.g. [2325]. The periodicity of the
angle becomes a problem when trying to identify an angle
operator because of the multivalued or discontinuous
condition of the angle. One way to avoid these difculties
is to adopt any description of the angle dependence through
periodic functions of it, such as the cosine, the sine and the
complex exponential of the angle operator which we denote
here by cos f , sin f , eif respectively. These operators have a
known representation in the angular momentum basis, e.g.
[26, 27]. A plane wave of the free particle dened along the
circle for a certain angular momentum state L = l is a
periodic function of the angle: yl (f ) = eilf 2p . The states
1
f =
2p
e-ilfl , (2 )
l
constitute a complete basis satisfying: ff = d2p (f - f),
where d2p represents the 2p periodic delta function.
Due to the symmetric nature of the spectrum of the
angular momentum, one can dene a new set of operators
L + = l ll, L- = - l - l- l , (3 )
l=0 l=0
such that the angular momentum can be represented as the
sum of these two operators: L = L + + L-. The Hamiltonian
of the quantum planar rotor written in terms of the L+ and L-
2 2
operators, Hrot = L+ 2I + L - 2I , describes separately the
two directions of rotation. By dening the creation and
Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101
annihilation operators for the positive and negative parts of
the angular momentum as:
d+ = eif L + ,
d- = e-if L-
where eif is the complex exponential of the angle whose
action on the angular momentum eigenbasis is to decrease a
single angular momentum state, eifl = l - 1, then the
operators L+ and L- can be written in terms of (4) as:
L+ = d d+ and L- = d d-.
+ -
3. Microscopic model
The microscopic model of interaction we consider in the
present paper is through angular momentum exchange
between the system and the environment. This type of inter-
action has been already used by Dittrich and Graham in [14],
where the interaction Hamiltonian is expressed in terms of
angular momentum ladder operators such as: Gk =
l ck, ll - k l. The action of the Gk operators in the angular
momentum eigenbasis, is to decrease the value of l by a factor
of k quantum units. In this model, the coefcients ck, l are
determined a posteriori of the derivation of a master equation.
They are chosen in such a way that the environment acts
oppositely on states with positive and negative l. Also, the
temperature effects were considered negligible in the sense
that the environment could only absorb angular momentum
quanta. This model offers a good description for the dynamics
of a quantum planar rotor subject to a pure dissipative med-
ium however, thermal effects are not considered and it is not
clear if from the assumptions taken for the ck, l coefcients
alone, one could consider the thermal effects. The conditions
established over the ck, l factors used in the DittrichGraham
model are equivalent to consider the coupling to the
environment through the operators dened in (4), coupled
independently to two different baths as done in [13].
The model of interaction we want to consider is based
precisely on these considerations, where the rotor is inde-
pendently coupled to two different baths through the opera-
tors d+ and d-. The interaction based on angular momentum
exchange can be understood as the scattering of the particles
that constitute the environment due to the rotations of the
rotor. Since the rotor is constrained to move along the ring,
only linear momentum in the tangential direction with respect
to the ring, can be transfered between the scattered particle of
the environment and the rotor. This in turn is directly related
to a change on the angular momentum of the rotor. In a
natural way, one can distinguish between the scattering of
particles when rotating into one or the other direction and
therefore separate these two type of events. Furthermore, one
cannot expect that the interaction with the environment will
generate correlations between the to directions of rotation.
The interaction Hamiltonian we consider in our model is in
the form:
Hint = gj+ (d+a j + d+ a j) + gj- (d-bj + d - bj ) (5 )
j j
P C L Vzquez and A Garca
where aj (aj), bj (bj) are creation and annihilation operators of
the two baths, the gj+(-) are the coupling strengths to the two
(4 ) different baths and the operators d+ and d- are dened in (4).
The operator d+ acts only on states with positive angular
momentum and d- only on states with negative angular
momentum. In this model of interaction it is also assumed that
the environments are composed of particles interacting
through a general potential which has an absolute minimum.
Then for a weak coupling between the system and the
environments this potential is not disturbed and can be
approximated as harmonic. The total Hamiltonian of the rotor
plus environments system is written as:
H = Hrot + He1 + He2 + Hint (6 )
where Hint is the interaction Hamiltonian given in (5), Hrot is
the Hamiltonian of the free rotor given in (1), and
He1 = w+j a j a j , He2 = w-j bj bj (7 )
j j
are the Hamiltonians of the two environments constituted by a
set of harmonic oscillators where aj(aj), bj(bj) are the creation
(annihilation) operators of the jth oscillator of the two
different baths interacting with the positive and negative
angular momentum states respectively.
4. Finite temperature master equation approach
Once the model of interaction has been established, one can
proceed to derive a master equation for the system. We want
to point out that the approach we are using for deriving the
master equation is mostly based on the same type of
approaches used in the optical master equations derivations,
however, different assumptions on how the thermal bath is
constituted can derive in other types of master equations. In
our case we have considered a medium which is dense
enough so the inner potentials between the environmental
particles can be assumed as harmonic. Other approximations
such as the high temperature limit will imply a low density of
particles and these inner potentials should vanish.
We derive our master equation based on the weak cou-
pling limit an the BornMarkov approximation (see the
appendix for details of the derivation). The derivation is
carried out by considering the density matrix of the composite
system as = s e1 e2 with the environments taken to
be at stationary equilibrium in a Boltzmann like states:
1
e = k nk e-Enk kB T nk nk . The master equation is now
obtained by writing the solution of the von Neumann equation
in the interaction picture with respect to Ho = Hrot +
He1 + He2 and tracing out the baths. Also the coupling rates
to the two baths are taken to be equal and the distribution of
frequencies of both baths are assumed to be dense so the
continuum limit can be done. Furthermore, we assume at
spectral densities. Under this assumption, one can write down
3
Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101
a non-Lindblad master equation in the Schdinger picture as:
d s
i = [Hrot , s] + i [ s]
dt
where
g k (T ) , dk s] + [ s dk , O
k (T )]
[ s ] = - ([O
2 k=+, -
k (T ) + dk, dk s] + [ s dk, O
+ [O k (T ) + dk ]) ,
where g = g2 p D (w ) is the damping rate and D(w ) is the
density of states of the baths which are taken to be identical.
The temperature dependence of the system is contained in the
operators O k (T ) dk where
k (T ) = N
k (T ) =
N Nlklkl,
l=0
for k = +,- and
(2 l + 1 ) 2 -1
Nl = exp - 1 .
2IkB T
is the Planck distribution function evaluated at the transition
energies, El + 1 - El of the planar rotor. The dissipative term
of the master equation (9) describes spontaneous and
thermally induced process which occur at a rate that depends
on the angular momentum states of the rotor. The transition
probabilities of the angular momentum states due to the
spontaneous emission process occur with rates that depend
linearly on the angular momentum states, gL while the
probability of increasing the angular momentum states due to
the thermally induced processes occur with a rate of gL N
which decays exponentially for large angular momentum
states. The zero temperature limit is taken when the
temperature effects of the environment are negligible. By
taking the limit T 0, the temperature dependent terms
become zero and the master equation becomes in a Lindblad
form with the Lindblad term:
g
[ s ] = -
2 k=+, -
(dk dk s + s dk dk - 2dk s dk ) , (12)
which has the same form as the one obtained by Graham and
Dittrich in [14] for the pure dissipative case. In equation (8)
we have also omitted a term in the von Neumann dynamics
part, which is responsible of small shifts in the energy
spectrum (see the appendix), since we want to focus only in
the non unitary inuence of the baths to the rotor. Figure 1
shows the time evolution of the average of the absolute value
of the angular momentum, and the purity of the system for
different temperatures, for an initial angular momentum state:
y = 7. The average of the absolute value of the angular
momentum for the zero temperature case has the exact
damping behavior L = Loe-gt , where Lo = 7 is the
initial angular momentum. As the temperature increases, the
averages rises up due to thermalization. In the case of the
purity, one can notice the characteristic recovery of the purity
for the zero temperature case, since the system is damped to
the ground state which is a pure state. As the temperature is
P C L Vzquez and A Garca
(8 )
(9 )
Figure 1. In the left, the time evolution of the average of the absolute
value of the angular momentum is depicted for different rates of
temperature taken in units of [2 IkB] and damping rate
g = 0.1 [ I]. The gure in the right presents the time evolution of
the purity of the system for the same rates of temperature.
(10)
(11)
Figure 2. The gure in the left shows the density matrix at the steady
state for T = 5 [2 IkB] and g = 0.1 [ I]. In it one can sees that the
non diagonal elements are zero while the diagonal elements follow
the Boltzmann distribution. In the right, some diagonal elements of
the density matrix are shown in their transition to the steady state
k (T ), when the system was initially in the angular momentum state
y = 7. The dashed lines corresponds to the Boltzmann factors of
the Boltzmann distribution.
increased, the purity is never recovered meaning that the
system is ending in some mixture which is a characteristic
feature of the thermalization.
4.1. The thermal state
In the following we show that the form of the steady state for
the model of coupling proposed in (5), along with the master
equation derived in section 4, is in a Boltzmann distribution
form. For the steady state it is required that d s dt = 0 . In the
long time limit, when the stationary condition is reached, all
non diagonal elements of the reduced density matrix s
become zero due to the decoherence produced by the inter-
action with the environment. In this limit, the von Neumann
dynamics have disappeared and the form of the steady state
depends only on the dissipative part of the master
equation (8). In gure 2 at the left, the density matrix in the
angular momentum basis at the steady state is depicted. The
system was initially in a superposition conguration of
angular momentum states: y = 1 (7 + -7). In the
2
gure one can see that all non diagonal elements become zero
at the steady state, therefore we must look at the form of the
distribution of the diagonal terms. By inserting the steady
4
Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101
state condition into (8) together with (9) we nd that at the
steady state, the following relation must be satised:
0= k (T ) , dk s] + [ s dk , O
([O k (T )]
k =+, -
+ [O k (T )
+ dk , dk s] + [ s dk , O
k (T ) + dk ]) .
Since only diagonal elements contribute to the form of the
steady state, we look for the probabilities fullling last
relation. By computing the diagonal elements of (13), one
sees that the probabilities must satisfy:
0 = -l (Pl + Nl - 1(Pl - Pl - 1)) q (l - 1)
+ (l + 1)(Pl + 1 + Nl (Pl + 1 - Pl)) q (l)
- l(Pl + N l -1(Pl - Pl + 1)) q ( - l - 1)
+ (l + 1)(Pl - 1 + N l (Pl - 1 - Pl)) q ( - l) ,
where Pl = l, l and q (x ) is the step function dened as
q (x ) = 1 if x 0 . One can assume that the four different
rows in (14) are independently equal to zero, therefore the
following relations for the probabilities holds:
(2l - 1) 2 (2l + 1) 2
- -
Pl = e 2IkB T Pl - 1, Pl + 1 = e 2IkB T Pl ,
for the positive part of the spectrum (l > 0 ) and
(2 l -1) 2 (2 l +1) 2
Pl = e
-
2IkB T Pl + 1, Pl - 1 = e
-
2IkB T
for the negative part of the spectrum, (l < 0). Equations (15)
and (16) are simply the detailed balance conditions of the
stationary state. These conditions are fullled if
- l
2 2
Pl = Ae 2IkB T .
where A = (2p IkB T 2)-1 2
is a normalization constant.
With the conditions established for the probabilities, the
density matrix at the stationary regime, s (t ) =
l =- Pl l l, with Pl given in (17), takes the form of a
Boltzmann distribution. We also obtain this results from the
numerical simulations. In gure 2 at the right, the transition of
some diagonal elements to the steady state are depicted. In the
dashed lines the correspondent Boltzmann factors are also
plotted to show the that the stationary state is indeed a
Boltzmann distribution.
5. Quantum rotor in a uniform external eld
As a demonstrative exercise we show the effects of a nite
temperature thermal bath to the rotor under the action of a
constant force. For this system the Hamiltonian is given by:
L
2 angular momentum states, there is a certain probability to
Hrot = + h cos f
2I
where is the strength of the external eld and
1
cos f = 2 l (l + 1l + l - 1l) is the cosine operator
in the angular momentum basis representation [26]. An
intuitive way to look at the dynamics of the system and
particularly to the steady state of the system is through the
quasi probability distribution function of the density matrix in
the phase space representation. For this purpose we make use
P C L Vzquez and A Garca
(13)
Figure 3. The Wigner function of the system is presented for
temperature T = 5 [2 IkB], g = 0.1 [ I] and strength of the
external eld in units of [2 I]: a) h = 0 , b) h = 2 , c) h = 4,
d) h = 10 , e) h = 40 , f) h = 80 .
(14)
of the Wigner function of the system given by the following
transformation [23]:
1 p
W (f , l) =
2p -p df f - f 2 f + f 2 ei l f .
(19)
(15)
gure 3 shows the phase space distribution function for the
steady state of the system with increasing values of the
Pl (16) strength of the external eld, at a temperature T = 5 [2 IkB]
and damping rate g = 0.1 [ I]. There, one can see that for
the case of no force which corresponds to the free rotor [case
(a) in the gure], the phase space representation of the
stationary state of the system is fully delocalized in position
states and Boltzmann distributed in the angular momentum
(17)
(the energy basis), along the positive and negative states. As
the strength of the external eld increases, localization in
angular momentum and position appears as the result of the
external cosine potential. Now the bath damps the system to
the minimum of the potential while the temperature widens
the distribution around it. For angular momentum states lying
close to the location of the minimum of the potential but far
from the angular momentum ground state, the probability of
these states vanishes rapidly as one moves away from the
minimum into the turning points and jumps into lower
angular momentum states in order to preserve the probability.
This situation repeats for angular momentum states closer to
the ground state. This features resembles the closed
trajectories in the classical phase space related to oscillatory
motion. In this context, thermal uctuations make higher
angular momentum states to oscillate around the minimum
while lower angular momentum states are more likely to be
damped in to the minimum of the potential. For large enough
(18) cross to the next minimum of the potential through the
separatrix.
6. Quantum kicked rotor
The problem of the quantum kicked rotor has been exten-
sively studied and tackling the case where the kicked rotor is
additionally coupled to a thermal bath could in principal be
5
Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101
Figure 4. In the left, the energies of the kicked rotor as function of
the number of kicks with period of the kick tK = p 2 for kick
strengths of the rotor K = n , n = 1, 3, 5, are depicted. In the right,
the dependence of the dissipated energy of the rotor to the
environment in between two consecutive kicks dE is plotted against
the temperature difference between the rotor and the bath DT , for
different periods of the kick under the resonant condition
(tK = p q ). Each marker represents a different kick strength; the
markers closer to the origin are the smallest kick strengths, K = 1 ,
and the kick strength increases by one as one moves away from the
origin. In both gures, the temperature of the bath is T = 5 [2 IkB]
and damping rate is g = 0.1 [ I].
the topic of a full paper. Here we want to focus only on the
regimes where the quantum resonances are expected to
appear, see e.g. [1], and study the effects that the thermal bath
has to the rotor in this regime. In the typical quantum kicked
rotor problem, the rotor is subject to periodic kicks due to the
inuence of a cosine-delta potential. The Hamiltonian of the
system in this case is given by:
2
L external eld and the quantum kicked rotor, both in contact
Hrot = + K cos
f d (t - ntk) , (20)
2I n
where K is the kick strength in units of and tK is the period of
the kicks with the same units as the time evolution of the system.
In the resonant condition, the kicks are done with a period that
are rational multiples of 2p , and the energy of the rotor is
supposed to increase quadratically with the number of kicks.
When the quantum kicked rotor is additionally coupled to the
thermal bath, the effect of the bath will be to dissipate to the
environment, a certain amount of energy gained by the kicks. In
gure 4, at the left, the average energy of the rotor for different
kick strengths at a temperature T = 5 [2 IkB] and damping rate
g = 0.1 [ I] is depicted. The upper peaks represents the energy
immediately after a kick is done while the lower peaks represents
the energy just before a kick is done. For this rate of damping, the
resonant features are not present anymore and the energy instead
of increase quadratically with the number of kicks; the system
reaches a quasi steady condition where the amount of energy
gained by a single kick is equal to the amount of energy
dissipated to the environment between two consecutive
kicks. By denoting the average energy at the quasi stationary
regime as E qst = lim 0 12 (E qst (tK + ) + E qst (tK - )),
where lim 0 E qst (tK + ) is the energy just after a kick and
lim 0 E qst (tK - ) is the energy just before a kick, then as the
kick strength is increased, the average energy E qst is also
increased, and so does the amount of energy dissipated to the
environment between two consecutive kicks, which we denote
6
P C L Vzquez and A Garca
by d E = lim 0(E qst (tK + ) - E qst (tK - )). Further-
more, if we dene the temperature of the system at the quasi
stationary regime as: Ts = 2E qst kB , such that as K 0 , the
temperature of the system matches the temperature of the thermal
environment as in a thermalization process, then the dependence
of the relaxed energy, dE , to the temperature difference between
the rotor and the environment DT = Ts - T seems to be linear,
DT ~ d E , in accordance to the Fourier law for the ux of
energy between the bath and the rotor. In gure 4 at the right, this
fact is shown for different periods of the kick under the resonant
condition.
7. Summary
In this paper we have addressed the problem of the quantum
planar rotor couple to a nite temperature bath by using a
model of interaction that successfully provides the tools for
developing a master equation for the rotor coupled to a nite
temperature bath. No model as such has been previously
derived for the nite temperature regimes. A master equation
has been derived for the model of interaction here proposed,
by using the the weak coupling limit and the BornMarkov
approximation for which the zero temperature limit (pure
dissipation) is also contained in the master equation as a
particular case. It was shown numerically and analytically that
for the derived master equation based in this model of inter-
action, the system reaches a Boltzmann distribution state at
the stationary regime. As exemplication of the possible
applications of the model, the case of the rotor in a uniform
with a nite temperature bath, were briey studied. In the
former, we have shown that the systems presents a classical
behavior when the magnitude of the eld is sufciently
strong. In the later we have shown that the coupling to the
thermal bath destroys the resonant features of the quantum
kicked rotor, leading the system into a quasi stationary con-
dition in which the the dissipated energy to the environment
depends linearly to the temperature difference between the
thermal bath and the rotor in accordance to the Fourier law.
Acknowledgments
We want to thank A Eisfeld and A Croy for annotations to
this manuscript and the discussions about the derivation of the
master equation. Also we want to thank T Gorin for the
enlightening discussions about the quantum kicked rotor
problem. PCLV acknowledges the hospitality and nancial
support of the MPIPKS where part of this work was rstly
thought under a postdoctoral stay.
Appendix Derivation of the master equation
Here we show the standard procedure for deriving the master
equation. Starting with the full Hamiltonian of the composite
system: H = Hrot + He1 + He2 + Hint where Hrot is the
Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101 P C L Vzquez and A Garca

Hamiltonian of the free rotor, He1 and He2 are the Hamilto- Now one can exchange the order of integration in (A.5) and
nians of the two different baths described by (7) and Hint is the evaluate these integrals by introducing a full eigenbasis of the
interaction Hamiltonian between the system and the two baths system, = l =-l l, next to the exponentials of L . For
given by (5). By considering an initially separable density each element evaluated in the integration one can separate
matrix of the composite system: = s e1 e2 , the the real and the imaginary parts by using the relation

solution of the von Neummann equation in the interaction 0 dt eit = pd ( ) iP/ , with P being the Cauchys
picture of the composite system and in the BornMarkov limit principal value. For the real part, integration over will yield
[28], has the general form: delta functions of the form d (w k - Wkl ) where
1
d s(t ) 1
= - 2 dt Tre [H int (t ) , [H int (t - t ) , s (t ) e]] ( )
Wkl = kl + 2 I . Consequently, integration over w k will
dt 0 set the frequencies for the Planck functions into the frequency

(A.1) differences of the rotor: - dw kd (w k - Wkl )
The operators d+, d- in the interaction picture can be written N (w ) = N (Wkl ). On the other hand the imaginary part of
k

as: the integral will yield a term that can be incorporated to the

von Neumann dynamics, by using the secular approximation
dk (t ) = e-i (k L+ l) t dk = dk e-i (k L- l) t , (A.2) and by neglecting non physical contributions. This term
for k = +, -, and l = 2I , L = L I . Since the baths are commutes with the Hamiltonian of the system and contributes
supposed to be in a stationary Boltzmann states: with a certain shift to the eigenenergies of the system.
1 Typically this term is related to a Lamb shift effect and
e = k nk e-Enk kB T nk nk , any perturbation therma-
sometimes is simply neglected. This will be our case since we
lizes immediately and also the self correlation functions of the want to focus only on the non unitary dynamics effects of the

baths are null: aj (s ) ai (t ) = aj (s ) ai (t ) =bj (s ) bi (t ) = bath. By recovering the identity from the full eigenbasis and
bj (s ) bi (t ) = 0. By introducing the continuous limit of the dening the operators:
distribution over the baths frequencies and considering (2l + 1) 2 -1
identical coupling strengths and homogeneous and at N k (T ) = e 2IkB T - 1 klkl (A.9)
distributed frequencies of the baths: gj2 = g D (w ) p , l=0
where is a scale factor and D(w ) is the density of states
of the two different baths, then one can write for baths The master equation can be written into its nal form,
correlation functions the following:
d
i s = [Hrot + HLS , s] + i [ s] (A.10)
gi gj ij (t ) g

- w t
d w e N (w )
i (A.3) dt
i, j
where
gigj *ij (t ) g -dw e-iw t (N (w ) + 1)

(A.4)
i, j g k (T ) , dk s] + [ s dk , O
k (T )]
where + j (t ) ai and *ij +(t ) = aj (t ) ai are the
[ s ] = - ([O
ij (t ) = a 2k =+, -
bath correlation functions correspondent to the bath coupled
+ k (T )
[O

+ dk , dk s] + [ s dk , O
k (T ) + dk ])
to the positive part of the angular momentum spectrum and
-
ij (t ) = bj (t ) bi, *
-
ij (t ) = bj (t ) bi are the bath correla-
(A.11)
tion functions correspondent to the bath coupled to the
negative part of the spectrum. The functions N(w ) = where the operators O k (T ) dk contain the temper-
k (T ) = N
(ew kB T - 1)-1 are the Planck distribution functions. By ature dependence and is the damping rate. The term HLS
going back into the Schrdingers picture, the master equation appears from the imaginary part of the integrals in (A.5) and it
takes the form: is responsible of small shifts on the energy spectrum since it
d s ig commutes with the Hamiltonian of the system. This term has
i
dt
= [Hrot , s] -
k=+, - 0 dt -dw k k (w k, t )[ s] the form:
(1) (2)
(A.5) HLS = G k dk dk - dk G k dk (A.12)
k =+, -
where the super operator k (w k , t ) is dened as
k where
k (w k , t )[ s] = e-iw t (N (w k ) + 1) D
k
2 [ s ]
1k [ s] + h.c.
+ eiw t N (w k ) D
k
(A.6) gP N (w k )
dw k w k - W ll,
(1)
G k = (A.13)
and l =- - kl

l) t
1k [ s] = e-i (k L+
D dk dk s - dk e-i (k L+ l) t s dk (A.7) gP N (w k ) + 1
- dw k
(2)
G k = ll . (A.14)
2k [ s] = dk ei (k L+
D
l) t
dk s - ei (k L+ l) t dk s dk . (A.8) l =- w k - Wkl

7
Phys. Scr. 91 (2016) 055101
In the zero temperature limit, the master equation becomes in
a Lindblad form with the Lindblad term:
g rotator with dissipation Zeitschrift fr Physik B Condensed
[ s ] = -
2
(dk dk s + s dk dk - 2dk s dk ) .
k =+, -
(A.15)
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