Hierarchical separation of relaxation timescales from spectral localization bounds

Abstract

We investigate the dissipative dynamics of multilevel quantum systems strongly coupled either to a lossy cavity mode or directly to a bosonic environment. By deriving spectral localization bounds, we establish conditions under which strong system-bath coupling gives rise to a hierarchy of population relaxation timescales. Our approach builds on the reaction-coordinate polaron-transform framework. By mapping the original strong-coupling problem onto an effective weakly dissipative model, we analyze the spectrum of the resulting Liouvillian superoperator through localization bounds. For the generalized V model, we find that strong system-bath coupling gives rise to a bright-dark structure in the effective system-bath coupling operator: a single collective mode remains strongly coupled to the environment, while the remaining modes become progressively dark. Consequently, the dynamics separate into fast and slow sectors and, at finite coupling strengths, develop a hierarchy of population relaxation timescales. Numerical simulations based on both secular and non-secular quantum master equations corroborate the emergence of timescale separation and the pronounced slowing down of dissipative dynamics at strong coupling. Our results reveal a general mechanism underlying anomalously slow relaxation in strongly coupled open quantum systems and provide a route for engineering long-lived states through system-environment interactions.