2021/02/28 by Steve Campbell, Bassano Vacchini · 85 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Collision #Complex system #Energy (signal processing) #Focus (optics) #Perspective (graphical) #Point (geometry) #Quantum #Quantum many-body systems #Simple (philosophy) #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/133/60001
published in Europhysics Letters (EPL) 133(6), 60001 (Institute of Physics) · Invited EPL perspective. 7 pages, 1 figure. Close to published version
openalex created_date 2021/02/15 · openalex publication_date 2021/03/01 · arxiv created 2021/05/24 · arxiv updated 2021/05/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Understanding and simulating how a quantum system interacts and exchanges information or energy with its surroundings is a ubiquitous problem, one which must be carefully addressed in order to establish a coherent framework to describe the dynamics and thermodynamics of quantum systems. Significant effort has been invested in developing various methods for tackling this issue and in this Perspective paper we focus on one such technique, namely collision models, which have emerged as a remarkably flexible approach. We discuss their application to understanding non-Markovian dynamics and to studying the thermodynamics of quantum systems, two areas in which collision models have proven to be particularly insightful. Their simple structure endows them with extremely broad applicability which has spurred their recent experimental demonstrations. By focusing on these areas, our aim is to provide a succinct entry point to this remarkable framework.