We describe a simple quantum mechanical method that can be used to obtain accurate numerical results over long timescales for the spin correlation tensor of an electron spin that is hyperfine coupled to a large number of nuclear spins. This method does not suffer from the statistical errors that accompany a Monte Carlo sampling of the exact eigenstates of the central spin Hamiltonian obtained from the algebraic Bethe ansatz, or from the growth of the truncation error with time in the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (TDMRG) approach. As a result, it can be applied to larger central spin problems than the algebraic Bethe ansatz, and for longer times than the TDMRG algorithm. It is therefore an ideal method to use to solve central spin problems, and we expect that it will also prove useful for a variety of related problems that arise in a number of different research fields.

• Received 5 January 2018
• Revised 23 March 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.220604