We calculate in an exact way the conditional past-future correlation for the decay dynamics of a two-level system in a bosonic bath. Different measurement processes are considered. In contrast to quantum memory measures based solely on system propagator properties, here memory effects are related to a convolution structure involving two system propagators and the environment correlation. This structure allows to detect memory effects even close to the validity of the Born-Markov approximation. An alternative operational-based definition of environment-to-system backflow of information follows from this result. We provide experimental support to our results by implementing the dynamics and measurements in a photonic experiment.
Identifying non-Markovianity with non-divisibility, we propose a measure for non-Markovinity of quantum process. Three examples are presented to illustrate the non-Markovianity, measure for non-Markovianity is calculated and discussed. Comparison with other measures of non-Markovianity is made. Our non-Markovianity measure has the merit that no optimization procedure is required and it is finite for any quantum process, which greatly enhances the practical relevance of the proposed measure.
We provide further characterization of non-Markovian quantum dynamics based on the concept of divisible dynamical maps. In analogy to entanglement witness we propose a non-Markovianity witness and introduce the corresponding measure of non-Markovianity. We also provide characterization of non-Markovianity in terms of entropic quantities, fidelity and Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information.
We analyze the non-Markovianity degree for random unitary evolution of d-level quantum systems. It is shown how non-Markovianity degree is characterized in terms of local decoherence rates. In particular we derive a sufficient condition for vanishing of the back ow of information.
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 …
We investigate non-Markovianity measure using two-time correlation functions for open quantum systems. We define non-Markovianity measure as the difference between the exact two-time correlation function and the one obtained in the Markov limit. Such non-Markovianity measure can easily be measured in experiments. We found that the non-Markovianity dynamics in different time scale crucially depends on the system-environment coupling strength and other physical parameters such as the initial temperature of the environment and the initial state of the system. In particular, we obtain the short-ti…
Markovianity of the quantum open system processes is a topic of the considerable current interest. Typically, invertibility is assumed to be non-essential for Markovianity of the open-quantum-system dynamical maps. Nevertheless, in this paper we distinguish a class of physically important dynamical maps (processes) for which invertibility is a necessary condition for Markovianity. Since every quantum-state tomography directly provides information on invertibility of the map, no optimization procedure is necessary for determining non-Markovianity regarding the considered class of dynamical proc…
We present a comprehensive and up to date review on the concept of quantum non-Markovianity, a central theme in the theory of open quantum systems. We introduce the concept of quantum Markovian process as a generalization of the classical definition of Markovianity via the so-called divisibility property and relate this notion to the intuitive idea that links non-Markovianity with the persistence of memory effects. A detailed comparison with other definitions presented in the literature is provided. We then discuss several existing proposals to quantify the degree of non-Markovianity of quantu…
Characterization of non-Markovian open quantum dynamics is both of theoretical and practical relevance. In a seminal work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 040405 (2018)], a necessary and sufficient quantum Markov condition is proposed, with a clear operational interpretation and correspondence with the classical limit. Here we propose two non-Markovianity measures for general open quantum dynamics, which are fully reconciled with the Markovian limit and can be efficiently calculated based on the multi-time quantum measurements of the system. A heuristic algorithm for reconstructing the underlying open q…
We establish a convex resource theory of non-Markovianity under the constraint of small time intervals within the temporal evolution. We construct the free operations, free states and a generalized bona-fide measure of non-Markovianity. The framework satisfies the basic properties of a consistent resource theory. The proposed resource quantifier is lower bounded by the optimization free Rivas-Huelga-Plenio (RHP) measure of nonMarkovianity. We further define the robustness of non-Markovianity and show that it can directly be expressed as a function of the RHP measure of non-Markovianity. This e…
We show that non-Markovian open quantum systems can exhibit exact Markovian dynamics up to an arbitrarily long time; the non-Markovianity of such systems is thus perfectly "hidden", i.e. not experimentally detectable by looking at the reduced dynamics alone. This shows that non-Markovianity is physically undecidable and extremely counterintuitive, since its features can change at any time, without precursors. Some interesting examples are discussed.
We present a general framework for the information backflow (IB) approach of Markovianity that not only includes a large number, if not all, of IB prescriptions proposed so far but also is equivalent to completely positive divisibility for invertible evolutions. Following the common approach of IB, where monotonic decay of some physical property or some information quantifier is seen as the definition of Markovianity, we propose in our framework a general description of what should be called a proper `physicality quantifier' to define Markovianity. We elucidate different properties of our fram…
The non-Markovia dynamics of quantum evolution plays an important role in open quantum sytem. However, how to quantify non-Markovian behavior and what can be obtained from non- Markovianity are still open questions, especially in complex solid systems. Here we address the problem of quantifying non-Markovianity with entanglement in a genuine noisy solid state system at room temperature. We observed the non-Markovianity of quantum evolution with entanglement. By prolonging entanglement with dynamical decoupling, we can reveal the non-Markovianity usually concealed in the environment and obtain …
We provide an analysis on non-Markovian quantum evolution based on the spectral properties of dynamical maps. We introduce the dynamical analog of entanglement witness to detect non-Markovianity and we illustrate its behaviour with several instructive examples. It is shown that for a certain class of dynamical maps the shape of the body of accessible states provides a simple non-Markovianity witness.
We devise a novel protocol to detect genuinely multipartite entangled states by harnessing quantum non-Markovian operations. We utilize a particular type of non-Markovianity known as the eternal non-Markovianity to construct a non-complete positive map to filter out the bi-separable states and detect genuine multipartite entanglement. We further propose a witness operator to detect genuinely multipartite entangled states experimentally based on this theory. Our study sheds light on a hitherto unexplored connection between entanglement theory and quantum non-Markovianity.
We introduce a measure of non-Markovianity based on the minimal amount of extra Markovian noise we have to add to the process via incoherent mixing, in order to make the resulting transformation Markovian too at all times. We show how to evaluate this measure by considering the set of depolarizing evolutions in arbitrary dimension and the set of dephasing evolutions for qubits.
We study a stochastic Schroedinger equation that generates a family of Gaussian dynamical maps in one dimension permitting a detailed exam of two different definitions of non-Markovianity: one related to the explicit dependence of the generator on the starting time, the other to the non-divisibility of the time-evolution maps. The model shows instances where one has non-Markovianity in both senses and cases when one has Markovianity in the second sense but not in the first one.
The non-Markovianity of open quantum system dynamics is often associated with the bidirectional interchange of information between the system and its environment, and it is thought to be a resource for various quantum information tasks. We have investigated the non-Markovianity of the dynamics of a two-state system driven by continuous time random walk-type noise, which can be Markovian or non-Markovian depending on its residence time distribution parameters. Exact analytical expressions for the distinguishability as well as the trace distance and entropy-based non-Markovianity measures are ob…
We port the concept of non-Markovian quantum dynamics to the many-particle realm, by a suitable decomposition of the many-particle Hilbert space. We show how the specific structure of many-particle states determines the observability of non-Markovianity by single- or many-particle observables, and discuss a realization in a readily implementable few-particle set-up.
We investigate the effect of counter-rotating-wave terms on the non-Markovianity in quantum open systems by employing the hierarchical equations of motion in the framework of the non-Markovian quantum state diffusion approach. As illustrative examples, the non-Markovian memory effect of a qubit embedded in a bosonic and a fermionic environment at zero temperature are analyzed. It is found that the counter-rotating-wave terms are able to enhance the observed non-Markovianity no matter the environment is composed of bosons or fermions. This result suggests that the rotating-wave approximation ma…
We put forward a measure based on Gaussian steering to quantify the non-Markovianity of continuous-variable (CV) Gaussian quantum channels. We employ the proposed measure to assess and compare the non-Markovianity of a quantum Brownian motion (QBM) channel, originating from the interaction with Ohmic and sub-Ohmic environments with spectral densities described by a Lorentz-Drude cutoff, both at high and low temperatures, showing that sub-Ohmic, high temperature environments lead to highly non-Markovian evolution, with cyclic backflows of Gaussian steerability from the environment to the system…
We present a formalism for detection of non-Markovianity through uncertainty relations. We show that when there is an information back-flow to the system from its environment through CP-divisibility breaking, the Choi-states corresponding to the reduced system evolution contain at least one negative eigenvalue. The consequent break down of uncertainty relations for such states can be used to witness non-Markovian dynamics. We present some relevant examples of the phenomenon for qubit channels. We further prove that square of the variance of a suitable hermitian operator can act as a non-linear…
Operation Mpemba effect: Breakdown of resource-Markovianity of free dynamics
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）；School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology（华南理工大学物理与光电学院）；Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences（北京量子信息科学研究院）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）
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…
The non-Markovianity of the stochastic process called the quantum semi-Markov (QSM) process is studied using a recently proposed quantification of memory based on the deviation from semigroup evolution, that provides a unified description of divisible and indivisible channels. This is shown to bring out the property of QSM processes to exhibit memory effects even in the CP-divisible regime, in agreement with an earlier result. An operational meaning to the non-Markovian nature of semi-Markov processes is also provided.
The non-Markovian nature of open quantum dynamics lies in the structure of the multitime correlations, which are accessible by means of interventions. Here, by examining multitime correlations, we show that it is possible to engineer non-Markovian systems with only long-term memory but seemingly no short-term memory, so that their non-Markovianity is completely non-detectable by any interventions up to an arbitrarily large time. Our results raise the question about the assessibility of non-Markovianity: in principle, non-Markovian effects that are perfectly elusive to interventions may emerge …
We study the non-Markovianity of the dynamics of open quantum systems focusing on the cases of independent and common environmental interactions. We investigate the degree of non-Markovianity quantified by two distinct measures proposed by Luo, Fu and Song (LFS) and Breuer, Laine and Pillo (BLP). We show that the amount of non-Markovianity, for a single and a pair of qubits, depends on the quantum process, the proposed measure and whether the environmental interaction is collective or independent. In particular, we demonstrate that while the degree of non-Markovianity generally increases with …
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…
By extending the response function approach developed in nonlinear optics, we analytically derive an expression for the non-Markovianity [Laine, et al, Phys. Rev. A 81, 062115 (2010)] in the time evolution of a system in contact with a quantum mechanical bath, and find a close connection with the directly observable nonlinear optical response. The result indicates that memory in the bath induced fluctuations rather than in the dissipation causes non-Markovianity. Initial correlations between states of the system and the bath are shown to be essential for a correct understanding of the non-Mark…
We develop a theory of linear witnesses for detecting non-Markovianity, based on the geometric structure of the set of Choi states for all Markovian evolutions having Lindblad type generators. We show that the set of all such Markovian Choi states form a convex and compact set under the small time interval approximation. Invoking geometric Hahn-Banach theorem, we construct linear witnesses to separate a given non-Markovian Choi state from the set of Markovian Choi states. We present examples of such witnesses for dephasing channel and Pauli channel in case of qubits. We further investigate the…
Non-Markovianity, as an important feature of general open quantum systems, is usually difficult to quantify with limited knowledge of how the plant that we are interested in interacts with its environment-the bath. It often happens that the reduced dynamics of the plant attached to a non-Markovian bath becomes indistinguishable from the one with a Markovian bath, if we left the entire system freely evolve. Here we show that non-Markovianity can be revealed via applying local unitary operations on the plant-they will influence the plant evolution at later times due to memory of the bath. This n…
We unveil a novel source of non-Markovianity for the dynamics of quantum systems, which appears when the system does not explore the full set of dynamical trajectories in the interaction with its environment. We term this effect non-Markovianity by undersampling and demonstrate its appearance in the operation of an all-optical quantum simulator involving a polarization qubit interacting with a dephasing fluctuating environment.
Although a number of measures for quantum non-Markovianity have been proposed recently, it is still an open question whether these measures directly characterize the memory effect of the environment, i.e., the dependence of a quantum state on its past in a time evolution. In this paper, we present a criterion and propose a measure for non-Markovianity with clear physical interpretations of the memory effect. The non-Markovianity is defined by the inequality $T(t_2,t_0)\neq T(t_2,t_1)T(t_1,t_0)$ in terms of memoryless dynamical map $T$ introduced in this paper. This definition is conceptually d…
We construct measures for the non-Markovianity of quantum evolution with a physically meaningful interpretation. We first provide a general setting in the framework of channel capacities and propose two families of meaningful quantitative measures, based on the largest revival of a channel capacity, avoiding some drawbacks of other non-Markovianity measures. We relate the proposed measures to the task of information screening. This shows that the non-Markovianity of a quantum process may be used as a resource. Under these considerations, we analyze two paradigmatic examples, a qubit in a quant…
Markovian approximation is a widely-employed idea in descriptions of the dynamics of open quantum systems (OQSs). Although it is usually claimed to be a concept inspired by classical Markovianity, the term quantum Markovianity is used inconsistently and often unrigorously in the literature. In this report we compare the descriptions of classical stochastic processes and quantum stochastic processes (as arising in OQSs), and show that there are inherent differences that lead to the non-trivial problem of characterizing quantum non-Markovianity. Rather than proposing a single definition of quant…
We propose a scheme to characterize the non-Markovian dynamics and quantify the non-Markovianity via the non-classicality measured by the negativity of quantumness. By considering a qubit in contact with a critical Ising spin bath and introducing an ancilla, we show that revivals of negativity of quantumness indicate the non-Markovian dynamics. Furthermore, a normalized measure of non-Markovianity based on the negativity of quantumness is introduced and the influences of bath criticality, bath temperature and bath size on the non-Markovianity are discussed. It is shown that, at the critical po…
We study non-Markovianity and information flow for qubits experiencing local dephasing with an Ohmic class spectrum. We demonstrate the existence of a temperature-dependent critical value of the Ohmicity parameter s for the onset of non-Markovianity and give a physical interpretation of this phenomenon by linking it to the form of the reservoir spectrum. We demonstrate that this link holds also for more general spectra. We unveil a class of initial states for which discord is forever frozen at a positive value. We connect time invariant discord to non-Markovianity and propose a physical system…
We show that Breuer-Laine-Piilo (BLP) non-Markovianity cannot capture the dynamical information in the non-unital aspect of the quantum dynamics. Moreover, we provide a measure on the effect of the non-unitality of quantum processes on the infinitesimal non-divisibility. This measure can be used as a supplement to BLP non-Markovianity for non-unital quantum processes. A measure on the degree of the non-unital behavior of quantum processes is also given in this paper.
We study the behavior of non-Markovianity with respect to the localization of the initial environmental state. The "amount" of non-Markovianity is measured using divisibility and distinguishability as indicators, employing several schemes to construct the measures. The system used is a qubit coupled to an environment modeled by an Ising spin chain kicked by ultra-short pulses of a magnetic field. In the integrable regime, non-Markovianity and localization do not have a simple relation, but as the chaotic regime is approached, simple relations emerge, which we explore in detail. We also study t…
We propose a new characterization of non-Markovian quantum evolution based on the concept of non-Markovianity degree. It provides an analog of a Schmidt number in the entanglement theory and reveals the formal analogy between quantum evolution and the entanglement theory: Markovian evolution corresponds to a separable state and non-Markovian one is further characterized by its degree. It enables one to introduce a non-Markovinity witness -- an analog of an entanglement witness -- and a family of measures -- an analog of Schmidt coefficients -- and finally to characterize maximally non-Markovia…
In order to analyze non-Markovianity of tripartite quantum states from a resource theoretical viewpoint, we introduce a class of quantum operations performed by three distant parties, and investigate an operational resource theory (ORT) induced it. A tripartite state is a free state if and only if it is a quantum Markov chain. We prove monotonicity of functions such as the conditional quantum mutual information, intrinsic information, squashed entanglement, a generalization of entanglement of purification, and the relative entropy of recovery. The ORT has five bound sets, each of which corresp…
We address the non-Markovian character of quantum maps describing the interaction of a qubit with a random classical field. In particular, we evaluate trace- and capacity-based non-Markovianity measures for two relevant classes of environments showing non-Gaussian fluctuations, described respectively by random telegraph noise and colored noise with spectra of the the form $1/f^α$. We analyze the dynamics of both the trace distance and the quantum capacity, and show that the behavior of non-Markovianity based on both measures is qualitatively similar. Our results show that environments with a s…
The non-Markovianity is a prominent concept of the dynamics of the open quantum systems, which is of fundamental importance in quantum mechanics and quantum information. Despite of lots of efforts, the experimentally measuring of non-Markovianity of an open system is still limited to very small systems. Presently, it is still impossible to experimentally quantify the non-Markovianity of high dimension systems with the widely used Breuer-Laine-Piilo (BLP) trace distance measure. In this paper, we propose a method, combining experimental measurements and numerical calculations, that allow quanti…
We investigate the coherence and non-Markovianity of a quantum tunneling system whose barrier is fluctuated by a telegraph noise, and its energy gap is modulated by Gaussian noise. With the help of averaging method, the system dynamics are analytically derived, and the analytical expression for coherence measure and non-Markovianity for the very limited parameter regimes for both initially coherent and non-coherent states are obtained. We observe non-Markovian dynamics in a situation where the Kubo number is high. It is also found that there is no strong relation between the coherence of the s…
Non-Markovianity has recently attracted large interest due to significant advances in its characterization and its exploitation for quantum information processing. However, up to now, only non-Markovian regimes featuring environment to system backflow of information (strong non-Markovianity) have been experimentally simulated. In this work, using an all-optical setup we simulate and observe the so-called weak non-Markovian dynamics. Through full process tomography, we experimentally demonstrate that the dynamics of a qubit can be non-Markovian despite an always increasing correlation between t…
We propose an all-optical experiment to quantify non-Markovianity in an open quantum system through quantum coherence of a single quantum bit. We use an amplitude damping channel implemented by an optical setup with an intense laser beam simulating a single-photon polarization. The optimization over initial states required to quantify non-Markovianity is analytically evaluated. The experimental results are in a very good agreement with the theoretical predictions.
Non-Markovian effects are ubiquitous in physical quantum systems and remain a significant challenge to achieving high-quality control and reliable quantum computation, but due to their inherent complexity, are rarely characterized. Past approaches to quantifying non-Markovianity have concentrated on small, simple systems, and we show that such measures can capture properties that are irrelevant to applications. With this insight, we propose a method for constructing relevant quantifiers of non-Markovian dynamics and illustrate the scheme's computability by characterizing a model quantum dot ar…
We investigate dynamics of Gaussian states of continuous variable systems under Gaussianity preserving channels. We introduce a hierarchy of such evolutions encompassing Markovian, weakly and strongly non-Markovian processes, and provide simple criteria to distinguish between the classes, based on the degree of positivity of intermediate Gaussian maps. We classify all single-mode phase-insensitive Gaussian channels according to their non-Markovianity degree, and show that weak non-Markovianity has an operational significance as it leads to temporary amplification of Gaussian inputs beyond the …
To quantify non-Markovianity of tripartite quantum states from an operational viewpoint, we introduce a class $Ω^*$ of operations performed by three distant parties. A tripartite quantum state is a free state under $Ω^*$ if and only if it is a quantum Markov chain. We introduce a function of tripartite quantum states that we call the non-Markovianity of formation, and prove that it is a faithful measure of non-Markovianity, which is continuous and monotonically nonincreasing under a subclass $Ω$ of $Ω^*$. We consider a task in which the three parties generate a non-Markov state from scratch by…
We study the effect of the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) and the secular approximation (SA) on the non-Markovian behavior in the spin-boson model at zero-temperature. We find that both the RWA and SA lead to a dramatic reduction in the observed non-Markovianity. In general, non-Markovian dynamics is observed for the whole relaxation time of the system, whereas the RWA and SA lead to such dynamics only on the short time scale of the environmental correlation time. Thus, the RWA and SA are not necessarily justified in the studies of non-Markovianity although they can estimate the state of th…
A simple relationship between recently proposed measures of non-Markovianity and the Loschmidt echo is established, holding for a two-level system (qubit) undergoing pure dephasing due to a coupling with a many-body environment. We show that the Loschmidt echo is intimately related to the information flowing out from and occasionally back into the system. This, in turn, determines the non-Markovianity of the reduced dynamics. In particular, we consider a central qubit coupled to a quantum Ising ring in the transverse field. In this context, the information flux between system and environment i…
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 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…
In order to engineer an open quantum system and its evolution, it is essential to identify and control the memory effects. These are formally attributed to the non-Markovianity of dynamics that manifests itself by the evolution being indivisible in time, a property which can be witnessed by a non-monotonic behavior of contractive functions or correlation measures. We show that by monitoring directly the entanglement behavior of a system in a tripartite setting it is possible to witness all invertible non-Markovian dynamics, as well as all (also non-invertible) qubit evolutions. This is achieve…
In the classical domain, it is well-known that divisibility does not imply that a stochastic process is Markovian. However, for quantum processes, divisibility is often considered to be synonymous with Markovianity. We show that completely positive (CP) divisible quantum processes can still involve non-Markovian temporal correlations, that we then fully classify using the recently developed process tensor formalism, which generalizes the theory of stochastic processes to the quantum domain.
We study analytically the non-Markovianity of a spin ensemble, with arbitrary number of spins and spin quantum number, undergoing a pure dephasing dynamics. The system is considered as a part of a larger spin ensemble of any geometry with pairwise interactions. We derive exact formulas for the reduced dynamics of the system and for its non-Markovianity as assessed by the witness of Lorenzo \emph{et al.} [Phys.~Rev.~A \textbf{88}, 020102(R) (2013)]. The non-Markovianity is further investigated in the thermodynamic limit when the environment's size goes to infinity. In this limit and for finite-…
