Real-Time Simulation of Open Quantum Spin Chains with Inchworm Method

Abstract: We study the real-time simulation of open quantum systems, where the system is modeled by a spin chain, with each spin associated with its own harmonic bath. Our method couples the inchworm method for the spin-boson model and the modular path integral methodology for spin systems. In particular, the introduction of the inchworm method can significantly suppress the numerical sign problem. Both methods are tweaked to make them work seamlessly with each other. We represent our approach in the language of diagrammatic methods, and analyze the asymptotic behavior of the computational cost. Extensive numerical experiments are done to validate our method.