Quantum Thermalization and Thermal Entanglement in the Open Quantum Rabi Model

Quantum thermalization and thermal entanglement in the open quantum Rabi model (QRM), in which a two-level system and a single-mode bosonic field are coupled to either two individual heat baths or a common heat bath, are studied. By treating the QRM as an effective multilevel system and deriving global quantum master equations in the eigenstate representation of the QRM, the physical conditions for quantum thermalization of the QRM is studied. It is found that, in the individual heat-bath case, the QRM can only be thermalized when either the two heat baths have the same temperature or the QRM is only coupled to one of the two baths. In the common heat-bath case, differently, the QRM can always be thermalized. Thermal entanglement of the QRM in both the resonant- and non-resonant coupling cases is also studied. The logarithmic negativity for the thermal state of the QRM is obtained in a wide parameter space, ranging from the low- to high-temperature limits, and from the weak- to deep-strong-coupling regimes. This work paves the way toward the study of quantum effects in nonequilibrium ultrastrongly-coupled light-matter systems.