Emulating non-Markovian system-bath dynamics with parametrically driven cavities

Quantum Physics arXiv:2608.21569 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 21 Aug 2026] Title:Emulating non-Markovian system-bath dynamics with parametrically driven cavities Authors:Valentin Boettcher (1), Félix Pellerin (2), Philippe St-Jean (2), William A. Coish (1 and 3) ((1) McGill University, Montréal, Canada, (2) Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada, (3) University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany) View a PDF of the paper titled Emulating non-Markovian system-bath dynamics with parametrically driven cavities, by Valentin Boettcher (1) and 11 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:We introduce and characterize a scheme for emulating non-Markovian quantum system-bath dynamics using the discrete electromagnetic field modes of a parametrically driven cavity. In this scheme, the character of a bosonic bath (the form of the bath spectral density) is tied directly to the shape of the real-time waveform describing periodic parametric cavity modulation. As an explicit example, we demonstrate the feasibility of this scheme for a fiber-loop experiment with currently achievable parameters, supported by numerical simulations and analytical estimates. In particular, we show that a localization transition of the spin-boson model can be accurately emulated in this fiber-loop cavity system. This localization effect is characterized by a sharp transition from partial decay to complete decay for a two-level system coupled to a bosonic bath as the bath spectral density $J(\omega)\propto \omega^{s}$ is continously tuned from the sub-ohmic ($s1$) regime. The transition is only exactly realized in the thermodynamic limit (for an infinite number of bath modes) and for sufficiently weak system-bath coupling. We highlight a competition between the weak-coupling and thermodynamic limits in this problem and show that challenges in approximately realizing the transition can nevertheless be overcome. Finally, we provide bounds on the systematic error introduced when emulating non-Markovian dynamics for arbitrary system observables. The scheme presented here can enable the realization of a modular platform for engineering custom non-Markovian baths, with potential applications in quantum thermodynamics, thermalization of many-body systems, and resource-efficient quantum simulations of open quantum systems. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Optics (physics.optics) Cite as: arXiv:2608.21569 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2608.21569v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.21569 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Valentin Boettcher [view email] [v1] Fri, 21 Aug 2026 19:17:41 UTC (799 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Emulating non-Markovian system-bath dynamics with parametrically driven cavities, by Valentin Boettcher (1) and 11 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: physics physics.optics References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)