Time-local master equations: influence functional and cumulant expansion
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The non-Markovian behaviour of open quantum systems interacting with a reservoir can often be described in terms of a time-local master equation involving a time-dependent generator which is not in Lindblad form. A systematic perturbation expansion of the generator is obtained either by means of van Kampen's method of ordered cumulants or else by use of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional technique. Both expansions are demonstrated to yield equivalent expressions for the generator in all orders of the system-reservor coupling. Explicit formulae are derived for the second and the fourth order generator in terms of the influence functional.
10 pages, to be published in Quantum Computing and Quantum Bits in Mesoscopic Systems (Kluwer Academic Plenum Publishers, december 2002)
10 pages, to be published in Quantum Computing and Quantum Bits in Mesoscopic Systems (Kluwer Academic Plenum Publishers, december 2002)