TRANSIENT DYNAMICS AND ASYMPTOTIC POPULATIONS IN A DRIVEN METASTABLE QUANTUM SYSTEM

The transient dynamics of a periodically driven metastable quantum system, interacting with a heat bath, is investigated. The time evolution of the populations, within the framework of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional and in the discrete variable representation, is analyzed by varying the parameters of the external driving. The results display strong non-monotonic behaviour of the populations with respect to the driving frequency.