Asymptotics of repeated interaction quantum systems (Q852615)

The authors study the large time behaviour of a quantum system \({\mathcal S}\) in repeated interaction with another system \({\mathcal E}\) with constant time periodicity \(\tau >0\). They show that in the case of a fixed coupling between \({\mathcal S}\) and \({\mathcal E}\), the entire system converges in the limit of large times to a so called repeated interaction asymptotic \(\tau\)-periodic state which is independent of any initial state chosen sufficiently close to a given reference state. As a consequence, an average second law of thermodynamics is deduced for repeated interaction quantum systems. This type of result applies to the modelling of open quantum systems, for example to the phenomenon of radiation-matter coupling in one-atom masers, or to the design of radiation field quantum states by repeated injection of two-level atoms interacting with an electromagnetic field inside a cavity.