Hybrid Quantum-Classical Stochastic Approach to Dissipative Spin-Boson Models

Spin-boson models involving many interacting spins and bosons are ubiquitous in quantum simulation platforms. At the same time, characterizing the dynamics of these quantum systems represents a significant challenge. Here, we consider general spin-boson models where bosons are subject to Markovian dissipation (e.g., due to cavity loss). We present an exact hybrid quantum-classical stochastic approach where the solution of a classical stochastic equation—mimicking the bosonic modes—is input into a quantum stochastic equation for the spins. Furthermore, the spins are effectively decoupled for each stochastic realization, which nevertheless comes at the expense of sampling over unphysical states. In contrast with existing stochastic approaches based on the influence functional formalism, we place no restriction (factorizability or Gaussianity) on the initial state, or the spin-boson coupling (except that it be linear in the bosonic operator). Markovian dissipation, being at the heart of our approach, renders the stochastic equations Markovian even in the strong coupling regime. Furthermore, it ensures hermiticity (though not positivity) of the density matrix for each realization, thus improving the convergence of stochastic sampling. Interestingly, we find a condition on the classical simulability of the system based solely on the single atom cooperativity even in a many-body setting. We benchmark and showcase the utility of our approach in several examples, specifically in cases where a direct numerical computation is unfeasible. Published by the American Physical Society 2025