Venue: Online

Class timings: 4:00 pm-5:30 pm on Tuesdays and Fridays

First meeting: 15th January 2021

Course description:

  1. Dissipation in Quantum Mechanics: General setup and various approaches
  2. Damped Quantum Harmonic Oscillator, two-time averages, and quantum regression
  3. Spin Boson Model (Dephasing) and some generalizations
  4. Dissipative two-level and multi-level systems
  5. Cavity-Quantum Electrodynamics (cavity-QED): Exact solutions of the Jaynes-Cummings Model (JCM)
  6. Dispersive limit of the JCM and its generalizations (reduction to Bose-Hubbard systems)
  7. Dissipative process in cavity-QED systems
  8. Driven-Dissipative Quantum Systems and applications (driven JCM)
  9. Dicke Model and phase transitions

Prerequisites: Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Physics

Textbooks: Below are some suggested books. I will also be making additional notes. 

  1. Howard Carmichael, Statistical Methods in Quantum Optics 1. Master Equations and Fokker-Planck Equations (Springer)
  2. Girish S. Agarwal, Quantum Optics (Cambridge University Press)
  3. Heinz-Peter Breuer and Francesco Petruccione, The theory of open quantum systems (Oxford University Press)

Term paper topics: Below are suggested topics for the term paper (report + presentation). The suggested references for each of them will be updated. Students will need to pick a topic (latest by February 15, 2021) and make a report and then give a presentation (at the end of the semester). 

  1. Non-Hermitian Random Matrices
  2. Quantum Dot circuit-QED systems
  3. Optomechanical Systems
  4. Self-trapping, localization in Non-Hermitian Systems
  5. Parity-Time Symmetric Systems

Grading Policy:

  • Homework – 40 %
  • Term paper (report and presentation) – 30 %
  • Final Exam – 30 %