Fermionic quantum walkers coupled to a bosonic reservoir

Abstract: We analyze the discrete-time dynamics of a model of non-interacting fermions on a finite graph coupled to an infinite reservoir formed by a bosonic quantum walk on Z. This dynamics consists of consecutive applications of free evolutions of the fermions and bosons followed by a local coupling between them. The unitary operator implementing this coupling generates fermionic transitions between two fixed vertices induced by absorption and emission of bosons at a single lattice site. The free fermion evolution is given by a second-quantized single-particle unitary operator satisfying some genericity assumptions, in particular it produces hopping of fermions between all vertices. The free boson evolution is given by the second-quantized shift operator on Z. We derive explicitly the Heisenberg dynamics of fermionic observables and obtain a systematic expansion in the large-coupling regime, which we control by using spectral methods. We also prove that the reduced state of the fermions converges in the large-time limit to an infinite-temperature Gibbs