For two qubits independently coupled to their respective structured reservoirs (Lorentzian spectrum), quantum beats for entanglement and discord are found which are the result of quantum interference between correlation oscillations induced by local non-Markovian environments. We also discuss the preservation of quantum correlations by the effective suppression of the spontaneous emission.
Entanglement enhanced quantum metrology has been well investigated for beating the standard quantum limit (SQL). However, the metrological advantage of entangled states becomes much more elusive in the presence of noise. Under strictly Markovian dephasing noise, the uncorrelated and maximally entangled states achieve exactly the same measurement precision. However, it was predicted that in a non-Markovian dephasing channel, the entangled probes can recover their metrological advantage. Here, by using a highly controlled photonic system, we simulate a non-Markovian dephasing channel fulfill the…
We analyze the dynamics of quantum beats in a system of two V-type three-level atoms coupled to a waveguide. We show that quantum beats can be collectively enhanced or suppressed, akin to Dicke super- and sub-radiance, depending on the interatomic separation and the initial correlations between the atoms. In particular, the interference properties of the collective beats are determined by the distance between the atoms modulo the beat wavelength. We study the collective atomic and field dynamics, illustrating a crossover from a Markovian to a non-Markovian regime as the atomic separation becom…
We present a first-principles derivation of the Markovian semi-group master equation without invoking the rotating wave approximation (RWA). Instead we use a time coarse-graining approach which leaves us with a free timescale parameter, which we can optimize. Comparing this approach to the standard RWA-based Markovian master equation, we find that significantly better agreement is possible using the coarse-graining approach, for a three-level model coupled to a bath of oscillators, whose exact dynamics we can solve for at zero temperature. The model has the important feature that the RWA has a…
We study photon-photon correlations and entanglement generation in a one-dimensional waveguide coupled to two qubits with an arbitrary spatial separation. We develop a novel Green function method to study vacuum-mediated qubit-qubit interactions, including both spontaneous and coherent couplings. As a result of these interactions, quantum beats appear in the second-order correlation function. We go beyond the Markovian regime and observe that such quantum beats persist much longer than the qubit life time. Using these non-Markovian processes, a high degree of long-distance entanglement can be …
We utilize the novel non-Markovian quantum jump (NMQJ) approach to stochastically simulate exciton dynamics derived from a time-convolutionless master equation. For relevant parameters and time scales, the time-dependent, oscillatory decoherence rates can have negative regions, a signature of non-Markovian behavior and of the revival of coherences. This can lead to non-Markovian population beatings for a dimer system at room temperature. We show that strong exciton-phonon coupling to low frequency modes can considerably modify transport properties. We observe increased exciton transport, which…
We study the open dynamics of a quantum two-level system coupled to an environment modeled by random matrices. Using the quantum channel formalism, we investigate different quantum Markovianity measures and criteria. A thorough analysis of the whole parameter space, reveals a wide range of different regimes, ranging from strongly non-Markovian to Markovian dynamics. In contrast to analytical models, all non-Markovianity measures and criteria have to be applied to data with fluctuations and statistical uncertainties. We discuss the practical usefulness of the different approaches.
We show that two, non interacting 2-level systems, immersed in a common bath, can become mutually entangled when evolving according to a Markovian, completely positive reduced dynamics.
Mixing dynamical maps describing open quantum systems can lead from Markovian to non-Markovian processes. Being surprising and counter-intuitive, this result has been used as argument against characterization of non-Markovianity in terms of information exchange. Here, we demonstrate that, quite the contrary, mixing can be understood in a natural way which is fully consistent with existing theories of memory effects. In particular, we show how mixing-induced non-Markovianity can be interpreted in terms of the distinguishability of quantum states, system-environment correlations and the informat…
Non-Markovian evolution of an open quantum system can be induced by the memory effects of a reservoir. Although a reservoir with stronger memory effects may seem like it should cause stronger non-Markovian effects on the system of interest, this seemingly intuitive thinking may not always be correct. We illustrate this by investigating a qubit (a two-level atom) that is coupled to a hierarchical environment, which contains a single-mode cavity and a reservoir consisting of infinite numbers of modes. We show how the non-Markovian character of the system is influenced by the coupling strength be…
Within the lowest-order Born approximation, we calculate the exact dynamics of a single qubit in the presence of 1/f noise, without making any Markov approximation. We show that the non-Markovian qubit time-evolution exhibits asymmetries and beatings that cannot be explained within a Markovian theory. The present theory for 1/f noise is relevant for both spin- and superconducting qubit realizations in solid-state devices, where 1/f noise is ubiquitous.
We have studied the non-Markovianity of dichotomously driven spin-boson model in the strong coupling regime in both memory kernel and time convolutionless master equation formulations. A strong correlation between the decay time of the environmental correlation function and the non-zero non-Markovianity is found in the absence of the external noise. Stochastic driving is shown to create strong non-Markovianity when the dynamics of the system without driving is Markovian. Also, exact analytical expressions for the trace distance distinguishability and the non-Markovianity were obtained for the …
Quantum non-Markovianity modifies the environmental decoherence of a system. This situation is enriched in complex systems owing to interactions among subsystems. We consider the problem of distinguishing the multiple sources of non-Markovianity using a simple power spectrum technique, applied to a qubit interacting with another qubit via a Jaynes-Cummings type Hamiltonian and simultaneously subjected to some well known noise channels, such as, the random telegraph noise and non-Markovian amplitude damping, which exhibit both Markovian as well as non-Markovian dynamics under different paramete…
The dynamic behavior of the entanglement for two two-level atoms coupled to a common lossy cavity is studied. We find that the speed of disentanglement is a decreasing (increasing) function of the damping rate of the cavity for on/near (far-off) resonant couplings. The quantitative explanations for these phenomena are given, and further, it is shown that they are related to the quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effect induced by the non-Markovian environment.
We study the dynamics of coherence-induced state ordering under incoherent channels, particularly four specific Markovian channels: $-$ amplitude damping channel, phase damping channel, depolarizing channel and bit flit channel for single-qubit states. We show that the amplitude damping channel, phase damping channel, and depolarizing channel do not change the coherence-induced state ordering by $l_1$ norm of coherence, relative entropy of coherence, geometric measure of coherence, and Tsallis relative $α$-entropies, while the bit flit channel does change for some special cases.
We study non-Markovianity as backflow of information in two-qubit systems. We consider a setting where, by changing the distance between the qubits, one can interpolate between independent reservoir and common reservoir scenarios. We demonstrate that non-Markovianity can be induced by the common reservoir and single out the physical origin of this phenomenon. We show that two-qubit non-Markovianity coincides with instances of non-divisibility of the corresponding dynamical map, and we discuss the pair of states maximizing information flowback. We also discuss the issue of additivity for the me…
We theoretically study the dynamical dephasing of a quantum two level system interacting with an environment exhibiting non-Markovian random telegraph fluctuations. The time evolution of the conditional probability of the environmental noise is governed by a generalized master equation depending on the environmental memory effect. The expression of the dephasing factor is derived exactly which is closely associated with the memory kernel in the generalized master equation for the conditional probability of the environmental noise. In terms of three important types memory kernels, we discuss th…
Entangled states can potentially be used to outperform the standard quantum limit which every classical sensor is bounded by. However, entangled states are very susceptible to decoherence, and so it is not clear whether one can really create a superior sensor to classical technology via a quantum strategy which is subject to the effect of realistic noise. This paper presents an investigation of how a quantum sensor composed of many spins is affected by independent dephasing. We adopt general noise models including non-Markovian effects, and in these noise models the performance of the sensor d…
Non-Markovian effects arising in open quantum systems evolution have been a subject of increasing interest over the past decade. One of the most appealing features of non-Markovianity (NM) is that it captures scenarios where loss of information and coherence are reversible, and thus a temporary backflow of information from the environment to the system is possible. In this work we study the interplay between the degree of non-Markovianity and the action of time-dependent control fields in an open two-level quantum system. We find that periodical modulation of a field acting solely on the syste…
We explore the nonunital non-Markovian dynamics of a qubit immersed in a spin bath. The nonunital environmental effects on the precisions of quantum parameter estimation are investigated. The time-dependent transfer matrix and inhomogeneity vector are obtained for the description of the open dynamical process. The evolution of the coherent vectors for a qubit is studied so as to geometrically demonstrate the nonunital non-Markovian effects. The revivals of angles for the fidelity between a maximal mixed state and an arbitrary trajectory state are presented in the nonunital non-Markovian dynami…
In this work we develop a numerical framework to investigate the renormalization of the non-Markovian dynamics of an open quantum system to which dynamical decoupling is applied. We utilize a non-Markovian master equation which is derived from the non-Markovian quantum trajectories formalism. It contains incoherent Markovian dynamics and coherent Schrödinger dynamics as its limiting cases and is capable of capture the transition between them. We have performed comprehensive simulations for the cases in which the system is either driven by the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise or or is described by the …
Relying on an exact time evolution scheme, we identify a novel transient energy transfer phe- nomenon in an exactly-solvable quantum microscopic model consisting of a three-level system coupled to two non-Markovian zero-temperature bosonic baths through two separable quantum channels. The dynamics of this model can be solved exactly using the quantum-state-diffusion equation formalism, demonstrating finite intervals of unidirectional energy flow across the system, typically, from the non-Markovian environment towards the more Markovian bath. Furthermore, when introducing a spatial asymmetry in…
We investigate the conditions under which the trace distance between two different states of a given open system increases in time due to the interaction with an environment, therefore signalling non-Markovianity. We find that the finite-time difference in trace distance is bounded by two sharply defined quantities that are strictly linked to the occurrence of system-environment correlations created throughout their interaction and affecting the subsequent evolution of the system. This allows to shed light on the origin of non-Markovian behaviours in quantum dynamics. We best illustrate our fi…
The solution of the quantum Zermelo navigation problem is applied to the non-Markovian open system dynamics of a set of quantum systems interacting with a common environment. We consider a case allowing an exact time-optimal realization of environment-mediated non-local system unitaries. For a linear coupling to a harmonic bosonic bath, we derive a speed limit for the implementation time in terms of the fundamental frequency of the bath modes. As a product of two exponentials of the local free wind and the pairwise system-coupling, the Zermelo unitary forms a natural building block for reachin…
The long-standing problem of nearly perfect photosynthetic yield in some types of bacteria and nearly all kinds of plants despite the interaction with a hot and noisy environment has witnessed quantum optical explanations in the last decade or so. Typically in these explanations, photosynthetic reaction centers are modeled as five-level quantum heat engines where the generation of Fano-type interference due to the coupling of discrete state transitions with a common Markovian reservoir is held responsible for the enhancement of the photosynthetic efficiency. In this work, we go beyond the Born…
We investigate the back-flow of information in a system with a second-order structural phase transition, namely a quasi one-dimensional Coulomb crystal. Using standard Ramsey interferometry which couples a target ion (the system) to the rest of the chain (a phononic environment), we study the non-Markovian character of the resulting open system dynamics. We study two different time-scales and show that the back-flow of information pinpoints both the phase transition and different dynamical features of the chain as it approaches criticality. We also establish an exact link between the back-flow…
As discovered by P. W. Anderson, excitations do not propagate freely in a disordered lattice, but, due to destructive interference, they localise. As a consequence when an atom interacts with a disordered lattice one indeed observes, a non-trivial excitation exchange between atom and lattice. Such non-trivial atomic dynamics will in general be characterised also by a non-trivial quantum information backflow, a clear signature of non-Markovian dynamics. To investigate the above scenario we consider a quantum emitter, or atom, weakly coupled to a uniform coupled-cavity array (CCA). If initially …
Memory effects can be studied through a conditional past-future correlation, which measures departure with respect to a conditional past-future independence valid in a memoryless Markovian regime. In a quantum regime this property leads to an operational definition of quantum non-Markovianity based on three consecutive system measurement processes and postselection [Budini, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 240401 (2018)]. Here, we study the conditional past-future correlation for a qubit system coupled to different dephasing environments. Exact solutions are obtained for a quantum spin bath as well as fo…
We study the exact decoherence dynamics of the entangled squeezed state of two single-mode optical fields interacting with two independent and uncorrelated environments. We analyze in detail the non-Markovian effects on the entanglement evolution of the initially entangled squeezed state for different environmental correlation time scales. We find that the environments have dual actions on the system: backaction and dissipation. In mparticular, when the environmental correlation time scale is comparable to the time scale for significant change in the system, the backaction would counteract the…
We demonstrate collectively enhanced vacuum-induced quantum beat dynamics from a three-level V-type atomic system. Exciting a dilute atomic gas of magneto-optically trapped $^{85}$Rb atoms with a weak drive resonant on one of the transitions, we observe the forward-scattered field after a sudden shut-off of the laser. The subsequent radiative dynamics, measured for various optical depths of the atomic cloud, exhibits superradiant decay rates, as well as collectively enhanced quantum beats. Our work is also the first experimental illustration of quantum beats arising from atoms initially prepar…
Fast and reliable reset of a qubit is a key prerequisite for any quantum technology. For real world open quantum systems undergoing non-Markovian dynamics, reset implies not only purification, but in particular erasure of initial correlations between qubit and environment. Here, we derive optimal reset protocols using a combination of geometric and numerical control theory. For factorizing initial states, we find a lower limit for the entropy reduction of the qubit as well as a speed limit. The time-optimal solution is determined by the maximum coupling strength. Initial correlations, remarkab…
It is known that one can characterize the decoherence strength of a Markovian environment by the product of its temperature and induced damping, and order the decoherence strength of multiple environments by this quantity. We show that for non-Markovian environments in the weak coupling regime there also exists a natural (albeit partial) ordering of environment-induced irreversibility within a perturbative treatment. This measure can be applied to both low-temperature and non-equilibrium environments.
The concept of non-Markovianity (NM) in quantum dynamics is still an open debate. Understanding how to generate and measure NM in specific models may aid in this quest. In quantum optics, an engineered electromagnetic environment coupled to a single atom can induce NM. The most common scenario of structured electromagnetic environment is an optical cavity, composed by a pair of mirrors. Here, we show how to generate and measure NM on a two-level system coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide with no mirrors required. The origin of the non-Markovian behavior lies in the initial state of the fiel…
Geometric phases have been shown to be feasible in implementing quantum gates to perform quantum information processing. For all the realistic applications, the environmental influence on the geometric phase and decoherence such as memory effects must be properly considered in order to achieve the required precision in geometric quantum computation. In this paper, we study the geometric phase for a generic open quantum system based on a microscopic model. A remarkable feature of the open system's geometric phase obtained from our theoretical formulation is that the geometric phase can be obtai…
We investigate theoretically the non-Markovian dynamics of a degenerate V-type quantum emitter in the vicinity of a metallic nanosphere, a system that exhibits quantum interference in spontaneous emission due to the anisotropic Purcell effect. We calculate numerically the electromagnetic Green's tensor and employ the effective modes differential equation method for calculating the quantum dynamics of the emitter population, with respect to the resonance frequency and the initial state of the emitter, as well as its distance from the nanosphere. We find that the emitter population evolution var…
An easily solvable quantum master equation has long been sought that takes into account memory effects induced on the system by the bath, i.e., non-Markovian effects. We briefly review the Post-Markovian master equation (PMME), which is relatively easy to solve, and analyze a simple example where solutions obtained exhibit non-Markovianity. We apply the distinguishability measure introduced by Breuer et al., and we also explicitly analyze the divisibility of the associated quantum dynamical maps. We give a mathematical condition on the memory kernel used in the PMME that guarantees non-CP-divi…
We present an experiment testing quantum correlations with frequency shifted photons. We test Bell inequality with 2-photon interferometry where we replace the beamsplitters by acousto-optic modulators, which are equivalent to moving beamsplitters. We measure the 2-photon beatings induced by the frequency shifts, and we propose a cryptographic scheme in relation. Finally, setting the experiment in a relativistic configuration, we demonstrate that the quantum correlations are not only independent of the distance but also of the time ordering between the two single-photon measurements.
In recent experiments, electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) were observed with giant atoms, but nothing unconventional were found from the transmission spectra. In this letter, we show that unconventional EIT does exist in giant atoms, and indicate why it has not been observed so far. Different from these existing works, this letter presents a consistent theory including a real space method and a time delayed master equation for observing unconventional EIT. We discover that this phenomenon is a quantum effect which cannot be correctly described in a semi-classical way as those in re…
We study optomechanical entanglement between an optical cavity field and a movable mirror coupled to a non-Markovian environment. The non-Markovian quantum state diffusion (NMQSD) approach and the non-Markovian master equation are shown to be useful in investigating the entanglement generation between the cavity field and the movable mirror. The simple model presented in this paper demonstrates several interesting properties of optomechanical entanglement that are associated with environment memory effects. It is evident that the effective environment central frequency can be used to modulate …
We study the interplay between forgetful and memory-keeping evolution enforced on a two-level system by a multi-spin environment whose elements are coupled to local bosonic baths. Contrarily to the expectation that any non-Markovian effect would be buried by the forgetful mechanism induced by the spin-bath coupling, one can actually induce a full Markovian-to-non-Markovian transition of the two-level system's dynamics, controllable by parameters such as the mismatch between the energy of the two-level system and of the spin environment. For a symmetric coupling, the amount of non-Markovianity …
We investigate the dynamics of a two-level system in the presence of an overall environment composed of two layers. The first layer is just one single-mode cavity which decays to memoryless reservoir while the second layer is the two coupled single-mode cavities which decay to memoryless or memory-keeping reservoirs. In the weak-coupling regime between the qubit and the first-layer environment, our attention is focused on the effects of the coupling in the hierarchical environment on the non-Markovian speedup dynamics behavior of the system. We show that, by controlling the coupling in the sec…
In this paper we generalize the results reported in Phys. Rev. A 88, 010101 (2013) and investigate the flow of information induced in a Coulomb crystal in presence of thermal noise. For several temperatures we calculate the non-Markovian character of Ramsey interferometry of a single 1/2 spin with the motional degrees of freedom of the whole chain. These results give a more realistic picture of the interplay between temperature, non-Markovianity and criticality.
We present a general theory of non-Markovian dynamics for open quantum systems. We explore the non-Markovian dynamics by connecting the exact master equations with the non-equilibirum Green functions. Environmental back-actions are fully taken into account. The non-Markovian dynamics consists of non-exponential decays and dissipationless oscillations. Non-exponential decays are induced by the discontinuity in the imaginary part of the self-energy corrections. Dissipationless oscillations arise from band gaps or the finite band structure of spectral densities. The exact analytic solutions for v…
We consider the Dicke model, describing an ensemble of $N$ quantum spins interacting with a cavity field, and study how the coupling to a non-Markovian environment with power-law spectrum changes the physics of superradiant phase transition. Quite remarkably we find that dissipation can induce, rather than suppress, the ordered phase, a result which is in striking contrast with both thermal and Markovian quantum baths. We interpret this dissipation-induced superradiance as a genuine dissipative quantum phase transition that exists even at finite $N$ due to the coupling with the bath modes and …
A theoretical investigation on slow light propagation based on eletromagnetically induced transparency in a three-level quantum-dot system is performed including non-Markovian effects and correlated dephasing reservoirs. It is demonstraonated that the non-Markovian nature of the process is quite essential even for conventional dephasing typical of quantum dots leading to significant enhancement or inhibition of the group velocity slow-down factor as well as to the shifting and distortion of the transmission window. Furthermore, the correlation between dephasing reservoirs may also either enhan…
We show that measurement can recover the quantum coherence of a qubit in a non-Markovian environment. The experimental demonstration in an optical system is provided by comparing the visibilities (and fidelities) of the final states with and without measurement. This method can be extended to other two-level quantum systems and entangled states in a non-Markovian evolution environment. It may also be used to implement other quantum information processing.
The Markovian approximation is widely applied in the field of quantum optics due to the weak frequency dependence of the vacuum field amplitude, and in consequence non-Markovian effects are typically regarded to play a minor role in the optical electron-photon interaction. Here, we give an example where non-Markovianity changes the qualitative behavior of a quantum optical system, rendering the Markovian approximation quantitatively and qualitatively insufficient. Namely, we study a multiple-emitter, multiple-excitation waveguide quantum-electrodynamic (waveguide-QED) system and include propag…