Dynamics of a qubit-oscillator system with periodically varying coupling

Abstract

The dynamics of qubits coupled to a harmonic oscillator with time-periodic coupling is investigated in the framework of Floquet theory. This system can be used to model nonadiabatic phenomena that require a periodic modulation of the qubit/oscillator coupling. The case of a single qubit coupled to a resonator populated with $n= 0,1$ photons is explicitly treated. The time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation describing the system's dynamics is solved within the Floquet formalism and a perturbative approach in the time- and Laplace-domain. Good quantitative agreement is found between the analytical and numerical calculations within the Floquet approach, making it the most promising candidate for the study of time-periodic problems. Nonetheless, the time- or Laplace-domain perturbative approaches can be used in the presence of aperiodic time-dependent terms in the Hamiltonian.