Adiabatic approximation for weakly open systems -: art. no. 022328

We generalize the adiabatic approximation to the case of open quantum systems, in the joint limit of slow change and weak open system disturbances. We show that the approximation is physically reasonable as under wide conditions it leads to a completely positive evolution, if the original master equation can be written on a time-dependent Lindblad form. We demonstrate the approximation for a non-Abelian holonomic implementation of the Hadamard gate, disturbed by a decoherence process. We compare the resulting approximate evolution with numerical simulations of the exact equation.