Steady-state entanglement scaling in open quantum systems: A comparison between several master equations

Abstract

We investigate the scaling of the fermionic logarithmic negativity (FLN) between complementary intervals in the steady state of a driven-dissipative tight-binding critical chain, coupled to two thermal reservoirs at its edges. We compare the predictions of three different master equations, namely a nonlocal Lindblad equation, the Redfield equation, and the recently proposed universal Lindblad equation (ULE). Within the nonlocal Lindblad equation approach, the FLN grows logarithmically with the subsystem size $\ell$, for any value of the system-bath coupling and of the bath parameters. This is consistent with the logarithmic scaling of the mutual information analytically demonstrated in [Phys. Rev. B 106, 235149 (2022)]. In the ultraweak-coupling regime, the Redfield equation and the ULE exhibit the same logarithmic increase; such behavior holds even when moving to moderately weak coupling and intermediate values of $\ell$. However, when venturing beyond this regime, the FLN crosses over to superlogarithmic scaling for both equations.