  The simulation of quantum transport in a realistic, many-particle system is a
nontrivial problem with no quantitatively satisfactory solution. While
real-time propagation has the potential to overcome the shortcomings of
conventional transport methods, this approach is prone to finite size effects
that are associated with modeling an open system on a closed spatial domain.
Using a master equation framework, we exploit an equivalence between the
superoperators coupling an open system to external particle reservoirs and
non-Hermitian terms defined at the periphery of a quantum device. By taking the
mean-field limit, the equation of motion for the single-particle reduced
density matrix becomes equivalent to real-time time-dependent density
functional theory in the presence of imaginary source and sink potentials. This
method may be used to converge nonequilibrium steady states for a many-body
quantum system using a previously reported constraint algorithm.
