Environment-assisted transport in a strongly correlated boundary-driven Fermi-Hubbard chain

Abstract

We study steady-state transport in a one-dimensional Fermi-Hubbard chain coupled to particle reservoirs at the boundaries and to local dephasing baths at each site, using the time-evolving block decimation (TEBD) method to solve the Lindblad master equation. In the absence of dephasing, the current exhibits two well-separated maxima as a function of the boundary driving rate, reflecting the distinct charge and spin energy scales of the strongly correlated regime. Upon introducing dephasing, we find two distinct dephasing-induced transport-enhancement regimes, in contrast to the single enhancement previously reported for spinless fermions. Analysis of the non-equilibrium steady state in the Hamiltonian eigenbasis reveals that the two regimes originate from distinct dephasing-induced redistribution processes: the first involves redistribution within the uppermost Hubbard band, while the second involves transitions between Hubbard bands. Our results demonstrate how many-body correlations shape the interplay between coherent driving, dephasing, and quantum Zeno physics in strongly correlated open systems.