Generalized mean-field approach to simulate the dynamics of large open spin ensembles with long range interactions

Abstract

We numerically study the collective coherent and dissipative dynamics in spin lattices with long range interactions in one, two and three dimensions. For generic geometric configurations with a small spin number, which are fully solvable numerically, we show that a dynamical mean-field approach based upon a spatial factorization of the density operator often gives a surprisingly accurate representation of the collective dynamics. Including all pair correlations at any distance in the spirit of a second order cumulant expansion improves the numerical accuracy by at least one order of magnitude. We then apply this truncated expansion method to simulate large numbers of spins from about ten in the case of the full quantum model, a few thousand, if all pair correlations are included, up to several ten-thousands in the mean-field approximation. We find collective modifications of the spin dynamics in surprisingly large system sizes. In 3D, the mutual interaction strength does not converge to a desired accuracy within the maximum system sizes we can currently implement. Extensive numerical tests help in identifying interaction strengths and geometric configurations where our approximations perform well and allow us to state fairly simple error estimates. By simulating systems of increasing size we show that in one and two dimensions we can include as many spins as needed to capture the properties of infinite size systems with high accuracy. As a practical application our approach is well suited to provide error estimates for atomic clock setups or super radiant lasers using magic wavelength optical lattices.

Graphical abstract