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Modeling dissipation in quantum active matter

Alexander P. Antonov1,*, Sangyun Lee2, Benno Liebchen3, Hartmut Löwen1, Jannis Melles1, Giovanna Morigi4, Yehor Tuchkov2, and Michael te Vrugt2,†

  • *Contact author: alexander.antonov@hhu.de
  • †Contact author: tevrugtm@uni-mainz.de
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 012201 – Published 6 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4gyc-3pht

Abstract

Active matter is characterized by a constant influx and dissipation of energy that gives rise to directed motion. Dissipation requires interactions with an external environment, such that extending the paradigm of active matter to a quantum framework requires an appropriate description of this environment. In this work, we consider a driven quantum particle undergoing noise and dissipation, with external driving exhibiting characteristics of classical activity. We model the nonunitary dynamics with time-local master equations and analyze the particle motion at different timescales for different forms of the master equations, satisfying different criteria. We systematically compare predictions on the dynamics of particle trajectories and thereby we uncover how the particle motion evolves under the interplay of quantum effects, dissipation, and activelike dynamics. These results are essential for guiding possible experiments aimed at realizing quantum analogs of classical active systems.

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 012201– Published 6 July, 2026
  • Received 12 February 2026
  • Accepted 11 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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