A non-Markovianity measure for quantum channels is introduced based on causality measure - a monotone of causal (temporal) correlations - arising out of the pseudo-density matrix (PDM) formalism which treats quantum correlations in space and time on an equal footing. Using the well known damped Jaynes-Cummings model of a two-level system interacting with a bosonic reservoir at zero temperature as an example, it is shown that breakdown of monotonicity of the causality measure is associated with the revival of temporal (causal) correlations hence with the negativity of the decay rate. Also, a note on the comparison with other well known non-Markovianity measures is given.
Quantum mechanics, in principle, allows for processes with indefinite causal order. However, most of these causal anomalies have not yet been detected experimentally. We show that every such process can be simulated experimentally by means of non-Markovian dynamics with a measurement on additional degrees of freedom. Explicitly, we provide a constructive scheme to implement arbitrary acausal processes. Furthermore, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for open system dynamics with measurement to yield processes that respect causality locally, and find that tripartite entanglement and no…
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 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 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 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…
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 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.
Open quantum systems exhibit a rich phenomenology, in comparison to closed quantum systems that evolve unitarily according to the Schrödinger equation. The dynamics of an open quantum system are typically classified into Markovian and non-Markovian, depending on whether the dynamics can be decomposed into valid quantum operations at any time scale. Since Markovian evolutions are easier to simulate, compared to non-Markovian dynamics, it is reasonable to assume that non-Markovianity can be employed for useful quantum-technological applications. Here, we demonstrate the usefulness of non-Markovi…
We consider a two-level open quantum system undergoing either pure dephasing, dissipative, or multiply decohering dynamics and show that, whenever the dynamics is non-Markovian, the initial speed of evolution is a monotonic function of the relevant physical parameter driving the transition between the Markovian and non-Markovian behaviour of the dynamics. In particular, within the considered models, a speed increase can only be observed in the presence of backflow of information from the environment to the system.
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 …
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…
We study how the number of employed modes impacts the ability to witness non-Markovian evolutions via correlation backflows in continuous-variable quantum dynamics. We first prove the existence of non-Markovian Gaussian evolutions that do not show any revivals in the correlations between the mode evolving through the dynamics and a single ancillary mode. We then demonstrate how this scenario radically changes when two ancillary modes are considered. Indeed, we show that the same evolutions can show correlation backflows along a specific bipartition when three-mode states are employed, and wher…
The quantum speed limit sets a bound on the minimum time required for a quantum system to evolve between two states. For open quantum systems this quantity depends on the dynamical map describing the time evolution in presence of the environment, on the evolution time τ , and on the initial state of the system. We consider a general single qubit open dynamics and show that there is no simple relationship between memory effects and the tightness of the quantum speed limit bound. We prove that only for specific classes of dynamical evolutions and initial states, there exists a link between non-M…
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.
In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the quantum speedup, nonMarkovianity and formation of a system-environment bound state. Previous results show a monotonic relation between these three such that providing stronger bound states can lead to a higher degree of non-Markovianity, and hence to greater speed of quantum evolution. By studying dynamics of a dissipative two-level system or a V-type three-level system in the presence of similar and additional systems, we reveal that the quantum speedup is exclusively related to the formation of the system-environment bound state, whi…
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 the Kolmogorov distance allows to quantify memory effects in classical stochastic processes by studying the evolution of the single-time probability distribution. We further investigate the relation between the Kolmogorov distance and other sufficient but not necessary signatures of non-Markovianity within the classical setting.
The dynamics of open quantum systems and manipulation of quantum resources are both of fundamental interest in quantum physics. Here, we investigate the relation between quantum Markovianity and coherence, providing an effective way for detecting non-Markovianity based on the \textit{quantum-incoherent relative entropy of coherence} ($\mathcal{QI}$ REC). We theoretically show the relation between completely positive (CP) divisibility and the monotonic behavior of the $\mathcal{QI}$ REC. Also we implement an all-optical experiment to demonstrate that the behavior of the $\mathcal{QI}$ REC is co…
The question, whether an open system dynamics is Markovian or non-Markovian can be answered by studying the direction of the information flow in the dynamics. In Markovian dynamics, information must always flow from the system to the environment. If the environment is interacting with only one of the subsystems of a bipartite system, the dynamics of the entanglement in the bipartite system can be used to identify the direction of information flow. Here we study the dynamics of a two-level system interacting with an environment, which is also a heat bath, and consists of a large number of two-l…
Non-Markovian evolution in open quantum systems is often characterized in terms of the backflow of information from environment to system and is thus an important facet in investigating the performance and robustness of quantum information protocols. In this work, we explore non-Markovianity through the breakdown of monotonicity of a metrological figure of merit, called the quantum interferometric power, which is based on the minimal quantum Fisher information obtained by local unitary evolution of one part of the system, and can be interpreted as a quantifier of quantum correlations beyond en…
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 establish a direct connection of quantum Markovianity of an open quantum system to its classical counterpart by generalizing the criterion based on the information flow. Here, the flow is characterized by the time evolution of Helstrom matrices, given by the weighted difference of statistical operators, under the action of the quantum dynamical evolution. It turns out that the introduced criterion is equivalent to P-divisibility of a quantum process, namely divisibility in terms of positive maps, which provides a direct connection to classical Markovian stochastic processes. Moreover, it is…
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…
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…
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…
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.
We address the problem of quantifying the non-Markovian character of quantum time-evolutions of general systems in contact with an environment. We introduce two different measures of non-Markovianity that exploit the specific traits of quantum correlations and are suitable for opposite experimental contexts. When complete tomographic knowledge about the evolution is available, our measure provides a necessary and sufficient condition to quantify strictly the non-Markovianity. In the opposite case, when no information whatsoever is available, we propose a sufficient condition for non-Markoviani…
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 …
We analyze the non-Markovian character of the dynamics of an open two-level atom interacting with a gas of ultra-cold fermions. In particular, we discuss the connection between the phenomena of orthogonality catastrophe and Fermi edge singularity occurring in such a kind of environment and the memory-keeping effects which are displayed in the time evolution of the open system.
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 study the non-Markovianity and quantum speedup of a two-level atom (quantum system of interest) in a dissipative Jaynes-Cumming model, where the atom is embedded in a single-mode cavity, which is leaky being coupled to an external reservoir with Ohmic spectral density. We obtain the non-Markovianity characterized by using the probability of the atomic excited state and the negative decoherence rate in the time-local master equation. We also calculate the quantum speed limit time (QSLT) of the evolution process of the atom. The results show that, the atom-cavity coupling is the main physical…
We explore in a rigorous manner the intuitive connection between the non-Markovianity of the evolution of an open quantum system and the performance of the system as a quantum memory. Using the paradigmatic case of a two-level open quantum system coupled to a bosonic bath, we compute the recovery fidelity, which measures the best possible performance of the system to store a qubit of information. We deduce that this quantity is connected, but not uniquely determined, by the non-Markovianity, for which we adopt the BLP measure proposed in \cite{breuer2009}. We illustrate our findings with expli…
We analyze the steady state entanglement generated in a coherently coupled dimer system subject to dephasing noise as a function of the degree of Markovianity of the evolution. By keeping fixed the effective noise strength while varying the memory time of the environment, we demonstrate that non-Markovianity is an essential, quantifiable resource that may support the formation of steady state entanglement whereas purely Markovian dynamics governed by Lindblad master equations lead to separable steady states. This result illustrates possible mechanisms leading to long-lived entanglement in pure…
We characterize a class of Markovian dynamics using the concept of divisible dynamical map. Moreover we provide a family of criteria which can distinguish Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics. These Markovianity criteria are based on a simple observation that Markovian dynamics implies monotonic behavior of several well known quantities like distinguishability of states, fidelity, relative entropy and genuine entanglement measures.
Dynamical A and B maps have been employed extensively by Sudarshan and co-workers to investigate open system evolution of quantum systems. A canonical structure of the A-map is introduced here. It is shown that this canonical A-map enables us to investigate if the dynamics is completely positive (CP) or non-completely positive (NCP) in an elegant way and hence, it subsumes the basic results on open system dynamics. Identifying memory effects in open system evolution is gaining increasing importance recently and here, a criterion of non-Markovianity, based on the relative entropy of the dynamic…
We study a quantum walker on a one-dimensional lattice with a single defect site characterized by a phase. The spread and localization of discrete-time quantum walks starting at the impurity site are affected by the appearance of bound states and their reflection symmetry. We quantify the localization in terms of an effective localization length averaged over all eigenstates and an effective participation ratio after time evolution averaged over all initial states. We observe that the reduced coin system dynamics undergoes oscillations in the long-time limit, the frequencies of which are relat…
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…
It is known that the time evolution of a subsystem from an initial state to two later times, t1, t2 (t2 > t1), are both completely positive (CP) but it is shown here that in the intermediate times between t1 and t2, in general, it need not be CP. This reveals the key to the Markov (if CP) and nonMarkov (if NCP) avataras of the intermediate dynamics. This is brought out based on A and B dynamical maps - without resorting to Master equation approach. The choice of tensor product form for the global initial state points towards the system-environment interaction dynamics as the sole cause for Mar…
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…
We give the map representing the evolution of a qubit under the action of non-dissipative random external fields. From this map we construct the corresponding master equation that in turn allows us to phenomenologically introduce population damping of the qubit system. We then compare, in this system, the time-regions when non-Markovianity is present on the basis of different criteria both for the non-dissipative and dissipative case. We show that the adopted criteria agree both in the non-dissipative case and in the presence of population damping.
We investigate the time evolution of the chirality reduced density matrix for a discrete-time quantum walk on a one-dimensional lattice, which is obtained by tracing out the spatial degree of freedom. We analyze the standard case, without decoherence, and the situation where decoherence appears in the form of broken links in the lattice. By examining the trace distance for possible pairs of initial states as a function of time, we conclude that the evolution of the reduced density matrix is non-Markovian, in the sense defined in [H. P. Breuer, E. M. Laine, and J. Piilo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 2…
Non-Markovian dynamics detection is one of the most popular subjects in the quantum information science. In this paper, a linear-entropy-based non-Markovianity witness scheme is constructed. The positive definiteness of the Choi state will be broken in the non-Markovian evolution, which can be witnessed by its linear entropy. Thus, the linear entropy of the Choi state can be used to witness the non-Markovian dynamics. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by an example of the pure dephasing channel. Also, it is shown that this method can be extended to the one based on Rényi ent…
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 …
In the last years, the application of machine learning methods has become increasingly relevant in different fields of physics. One of the most significant subjects in the theory of open quantum systems is the study of the characterization of non-Markovian memory effects that emerge dynamically throughout the time evolution of open systems as they interact with their surrounding environment. Here we consider two well-established quantifiers of the degree of memory effects, namely, the trace distance and the entanglement-based measures of non-Markovianity. We demonstrate that using machine lear…
Master equations govern the time evolution of a quantum system interacting with an environment, and may be written in a variety of forms. Time-independent or memoryless master equations, in particular, can be cast in the well-known Lindblad form. Any time-local master equation, Markovian or non-Markovian, may in fact also be written in a Lindblad-like form. A diagonalisation procedure results in a unique, and in this sense canonical, representation of the equation, which may be used to fully characterize the non-Markovianity of the time evolution. Recently, several different measures of non-Ma…
Using the paradigm of information backflow to characterize a non-Markovian evolution, we introduce so-called precursors of non-Markovianity, i.e. necessary properties that the system and environment state must exhibit at earlier times in order for an ensuing dynamics to be non-Markovian. In particular, we consider a quantitative framework to assess the role that established system-environment correlations together with changes in environmental states play in an emerging non-Markovian dynamics. By defining the relevant contributions in terms of the Bures distance, which is conveniently expresse…
We introduce a generalized approach to characterize the non-Markovianity of quantum dynamical maps via breakdown of monotonicity of thermodynamic functions. By adopting an entropy-based formulation of quantum thermodynamics, we use the relationship between heat and entropy to propose a measure of non-Markovianity based on the heat flow for single-qubit quantum evolutions. This measure can be applied for unital dynamical maps that do not invert the sign of the internal energy. Under certain conditions, it can also be extended for other thermodynamic functions, such as internal energy and work f…
We study the properties of a refined weak coupling limit that preserves complete positivity in order to describe non-Markovian dynamics in the spin-boson model. With this tool, we show the system presents a rich and new non-Markovian phenomenology. This implies a dynamical difference between entanglement and coherence: the latter undergoes revivals whereas the former not, despite the induced dynamics being fully incoherent. In addition, the evolution presents "quasieternal" non-Markovianity, becoming non-divisible at any time period where the system evolves qualitatively. Furthermore, the meth…
By using the quantum Yang-Baxterization approach to the three different Hamiltonians, we investigate the behavior of the quantum Fisher information (QFI) under the actions of these Hamiltonians on the different two-qubit input states and by estimating the meaningful parameter $φ$. We address the overall estimation properties by evaluating the QFI for the whole system undergone different unitary evolution. The results show that the behavior of the QFI depends on the choice of the initial states. Choosing the optimal input states can improve the precision of quantum parameter estimation. On the …
We consider the dynamics of a collisional model in which both the system and environment are embodied by spin-$1/2$ particles. In order to include non-Markovian features in our model we introduce interactions among the environmental qubits and investigate the effect that different models of such interaction have on the degree of non-Markovianity of the system's dynamics. By extending that interaction beyond the nearest-neighbour, we enhance the degree of non-Markovianity in the system's dynamics. A further significant increase can be observed if a collective interaction with the forthcoming en…
Non-Markovian processes have recently become a central topic in the study of open quantum systems. We realize experimentally non-Markovian decoherence processes of single photons by combining time delay and evolution in a polarization-maintaining optical fiber. The experiment allows the identification of the process with strongest memory effects as well as the determination of a recently proposed measure for the degree of quantum non-Markovianity based on the exchange of information between the open system and its environment. Our results show that an experimental quantification of memory in q…
We explore the connection between two recently introduced notions of non-Markovian quantum dynamics and the validity of the so-called quantum regression theorem. While non-Markovianity of a quantum dynamics has been defined looking at the behaviour in time of the statistical operator, which determines the evolution of mean values, the quantum regression theorem makes statements about the behaviour of system correlation functions of order two and higher. The comparison relies on an estimate of the validity of the quantum regression hypothesis, which can be obtained exactly evaluating two points…
