A Generic Method for Integrating Lindblad Master Equations

Abstract: The time evolution of Markovian open quantum systems is governed by Lindblad master equations, whose solution can be formally written as the Lindbladian exponential acting on the initial density matrix. By expanding this Lindbladian exponential into the Taylor series, we propose a generic method for integrating Lindblad master equations. In this method, the series is truncated, retaining a finite number of terms, and the iterative actions of Lindbladian on the density matrix follow the corresponding master equation. While mathematically equivalent to the widely-used vectorization method, our method offers significant improvements in the numerical efficiency, especially for systems with many degrees of freedom. Moreover, our proposed method can be integrated seamlessly with tensor networks. Two illustrative examples, a two-level system exhibiting damped Rabi oscillations and a driven dissipative Heisenberg chain, are used to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of our method.