Adiabatic theorems for generators of contracting evolutions (Q444636)

This paper deals with solving equations of the form \(\epsilon \dot{x}(s)=L(s)x(s)\), where \(L(s)\) is, for any fixed \(s\), the generator of a contraction semigroup. It provides a general setting for the adiabatic theory of the systems governed by a family of linear operators generating a contraction in a Banach space that includes unitary quantum evolutions, quantum evolutions of open systems generated by Lindbladians, and classically driven stochastic systems. Two adiabatic theorems are presented: one when \(0\) is an isolated eigenvalue of \(L(s)\) and the other when it is not. In the first case, an adiabatic expansion for the solution is given showing different characteristics between the motion within \(\mathrm{ker} L(s)\) and the motion transversal to it. For the latter case, it is proven that the dynamics of the system is constrained to the manifold of instantaneous stationary states and is parallel transported along with the manifold as \(\epsilon \to 0\). Lastly, the results are applied to describe adiabatic evolution driven by Lindblad operators and an evolution of the probability distribution of a continuous-time Markov process.