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Research Publications (Systems Science)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://ir-dev.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/842

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    Quantum-statistical approach to electromagnetic wave propagation and dissipation inside dielectric media and nanophotonic and plasmonic waveguides
    (American Physical Society, 2016) Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G.
    Quantum-statistical effects occur during the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves inside the dielectric media or metamaterials, which include a large class of nanophotonic and plasmonic waveguides with dissipation and noise. Exploiting the formal analogy between the Schr¨odinger equation and the Maxwell equations for dielectric linear media, we rigorously derive the effective Hamiltonian operatorwhich describes such propagation. This operator turns out to be essentially non-Hermitian in general, and pseudo-Hermitian in some special cases. Using the density operator approach for general non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, we derive a master equation that describes the statistical ensembles of EM wave modes. The method also describes the quantum dissipative and decoherence processes which happen during the wave’s propagation, and, among other things, it reveals the conditions that are necessary to control the energy and information loss inside the above-mentioned materials.
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    Non-Hermitian Hamiltonian Approach for Electromagnetic Wave Propagation and Dissipation tn Dielectric Media
    (IEEE, 2016-06) Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G.
    Using the formal analogy between a certain class of Maxwell equations and the Schrdinger equation, we derive the effective Hamiltonian operator that governs the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) wave modes inside nonconducting lin­ear media, which include a large range of nanophotonic and plasmonic waveguides. It turns out that this Hamiltonian is essentially non-Hermitian, and thus requires a special treatment. We formulate the density operator approach for dynamical systems with non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, and derive a master equation that describes the statistical ensembles of EM wave modes. The method provides a theoretical instrument which can be used when designing the next generation of quantum EM devices for sensitive and non-invasive measurements.
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    Quantum entropy of systems described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians
    (IOP Science, 2016-03-02) Sergi, Alessandro; Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G.
    We study the quantum entropy of systems that are described by general non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, including those which can model the effects of sinks or sources. We generalize the von Neumann entropy to the non-Hermitian case and find that one needs both the normalized and non-normalized density operators in order to properly describe irreversible processes. It turns out that such a generalization monitors the onset of disorder in quantum dissipative systems. We give arguments for why one can consider the generalized entropy as the informational entropy describing the flow of information between the system and the bath. We illustrate the theory by explicitly studying few simple models, including tunneling systems with two energy levels and non-Hermitian detuning.
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    Time correlation functions for non-Hermitian quantum systems
    (American Physical Society, 2015-06-09) Sergi, Alessandro; Zloshchastiev, Konstantin G.
    We introduce a formalism for time-dependent correlation functions for systems whose evolutions are governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians of general type. It turns out that one can define two different types of time correlation functions. Both these definitions seem to be physically consistent while becoming equivalent only in certain cases. Moreover, when autocorrelation functions are considered, one can introduce another function defined as the relative difference between the two definitions. We conjecture that such a function can be used to assess the positive semidefiniteness of the density operator without computing its eigenvalues. We illustrate these points by studying analytically a number of models with two energy levels.