Effective dynamics of disordered quantum systems

Abstract: We derive general evolution equations describing the ensemble-average quantum dynamics generated by disordered Hamiltonians. The disorder average affects the coherence of the evolution and can be accounted for by suitably tailored effective coupling agents and associated rates which encode the specific statistical properties of the Hamiltonian's eigenvectors and eigenvalues, respectively. Spectral disorder and isotropically disordered eigenvector distributions are considered as paradigmatic test cases.