Impact of independent reservoirs on the quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects

Abstract: In this paper, we look into what happens to a quantum system under repeated measurements if it interacts with two independent reservoirs. In particular, we look at the behavior of a two-level system interacting with reservoirs consisting of harmonic oscillators. The interaction with one reservoir is weak with a dissipative-type coupling, while the interaction with the other reservoir is strong with a dephasing-type coupling. Using a polaron transformation, we show that the presence of the strongly coupled reservoir can actually reduce the decay rate of the quantum system due to the effect of the weakly-coupled reservoir.