Solving the spin-boson model of strong dissipation with flexible random-deterministic scheme

The zero-temperature dynamics of the spin-boson model with strong dissipation has been a challenging problem for more than 20 years. To solve this and quantum dynamics of dissipative systems at large, we recently proposed a mixed random-deterministic method. This scheme has been successfully used to simulate the time evolution of the spin-boson model at zero temperature for weak to moderate dissipation. For a better numerical performance, the approach is further modified so that it is flexible to convert a certain part of the random treatment to a deterministic one a la hierarchical equations. Applying the new method to the strong dissipated spin-boson model at zero temperature, we observe that the population in the localized state obeys a simple decay dynamics and the time scale is proportional to the reciprocal of the cutoff frequency. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.