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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Statistical and Computational Physics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1474018
This article is part of the Research Topic Non-Stationary Quantum Many-Body Dynamics View all articles

Dephasing-assisted transport in a tight-binding chain with a linear potential

Provisionally accepted
Samuel L. Jacob Samuel L. Jacob 1*Laetitia Bettmann Laetitia Bettmann 1Artur Lacerda Artur Lacerda 1Krissia Zawadzki Krissia Zawadzki 2Stephen Clark Stephen Clark 3John Goold John Goold 1Juan J. Mendoza-Arenas Juan J. Mendoza-Arenas 4
  • 1 School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
  • 2 Instituto de Física de São Carlos, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
  • 3 H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, United Kingdom
  • 4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    An environment interacting with a quantum system can enhance transport through the suppression of quantum effects responsible for localization. In this paper, we study the interplay between bulk dephasing and a linear potential in a boundary-driven tight-binding chain. A linear potential induces Wannier-Stark localization in the absence of noise, while dephasing induces diffusive transport in the absence of a tilt. We derive an approximate expression for the steady-state current as a function of both dephasing and tilt which closely matches the exact solution for a wide range of parameters. From it, we find that the maximum current occurs for a dephasing rate equal to the period of Bloch oscillations in the Wannier-Stark localized system. We also find that the current displays a maximum as a function of the system size, provided that the total potential tilt across the chain remains constant. Our results can be verified in current experimental platforms and represents a step forward in analytical studies of environment-assisted transport.

    Keywords: Dephasing assisted transport, Bloch oscillations, quantum transport, Quantum many body, Wannier-Stark localization

    Received: 31 Jul 2024; Accepted: 25 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Jacob, Bettmann, Lacerda, Zawadzki, Clark, Goold and Mendoza-Arenas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Samuel L. Jacob, School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

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