Collisional models are a category of microscopic framework designed to study open quantum systems. The framework involves a system sequentially interacting with a bath comprised of identically prepared units. In this regard, quantum homogenization is a process where the system state approaches the identically prepared state of bath unit in the asymptotic limit. Here, we study the homogenization process for a single qubit in the non-Markovian collisional model framework generated via additional bath-bath interaction. With partial swap operation as both system-bath and bath-bath unitary, we numerically demonstrate that homogenization is achieved irrespective of the initial states of the system or bath units. This is reminiscent of the Markovian scenario, where partial swap is the unique operation for a universal quantum homogenizer. On the other hand, we observe that the rate of homogenization is slower than its Markovian counter part. Interestingly, a different choice of bath-bath unitary speeds up the homogenization process but loses the universality, being dependent on the initial states of the bath units.
We investigate the smallest set of requirements for inducing non-Markovian dynamics in a collisional model of open quantum systems. This is done by introducing correlations in the state of the environment and analyzing the divisibility of the quantum maps from consecutive time steps. Our model and results serve as a platform for the microscopic study of non-Markovian behavior as well as an example of a simple scenario of non-Markovianity with purely contractive maps, i.e. with no back-flow of information between system and environment.
A wide class of non-Markovian completely positive master equations can be formulated on the basis of quantum collisional models. In this phenomenological approach the dynamics of an open quantum system is modeled through an ensemble of stochastic realizations that consist in the application at random times of a (collisional) completely positive transformation over the system state. In this paper, we demonstrate that these kinds of models can be embedded in bipartite Markovian Lindblad dynamics consisting of the system of interest and an auxiliary one. In contrast with phenomenological formulat…
The dynamics of systems subjected to noise is called Markovian in the absence of memory effects, i.e. when its immediate future only depends on its present. Time correlations in the noise source may generate non-Markovian effects that, sometimes, can be erased by appropriately coarse graining the time evolution of the system. In general, the coarse graining time $t_\text{CG}$ is taken to be much larger than the correlation time $τ$ but no direct relation between them is established. Here we analytically obtain a relation between $t_\text{CG}$ and $τ$ for the dynamics of a qubit subjected to a …
We propose a simple structure for stationary non-Markovian quantum chains in the framework of collisional dynamics of open quantum systems. To this end, we modify the microscopic Markovian system--reservoir model, consider multiple collisions with each of the molecules with an overlap between the collisional time intervals. We show how the equivalent Markovian quantum chain can be constructed with the addition of satellite quantum memory to the system. We distinguish quantum from classical non-Markovianity. Moreover, we define the counts of non-Markovianity by the required number of satellite …
Convex combinations of the completely positive (CP) as well as CP-divisible, continuous time dynamical maps arising from collision models are investigated. While the individual maps are both CP and Markovian we find that convex combinations remain CP but not necessarily Markovian. Examples of such combinations for qubit dynamical maps arising from collisional models are worked out and the invertibility, CP-divisibility, P-divisibility as well as Markovian properties of such maps are explored.
The Markovian evolution of an open quantum system is characterized by a positive entropy production, while the global entropy gets redistributed between the system and the environment degrees of freedom. Starting from these premises, we analyze the entropy variation of an open quantum system in terms of two distinct relations: the Clausius inequality, that provides an intrinsic bound for the entropy variation in terms of the heat absorbed by the system, and an extrinsic inequality, which instead relates the former to the corresponding entropy increment of the environment. By modeling the therm…
The standard collisional model paradigm consists of a system that interacts sequentially with identically prepared ancillas. After infinitely many collisions, and under appropriate conditions, the system may converge to the same state as the ancillas. This process, known as homogenization, is independent of the ancilla initial state, being a property only of the underlying dynamics. In this paper we extend this idea to locally identical, but globally correlated, ancillas, and show that correlations break homogenization. This is done numerically using a minimal qubit model, and analytically usi…
We point to the connection between a recently introduced class of non-Markovian master equations and the general structure of quantum collisional models. The basic construction relies on three basic ingredients: a collection of time dependent completely positive maps, a completely positive trace preserving transformation and a waiting time distribution characterizing a renewal process. The relationship between this construction and a Lindblad dynamics is clarified by expressing the solution of a Lindblad master equation in terms of demixtures over different stochastic trajectories for the stat…
We study the applicability of collisional models for non-Markovian dynamics of open quantum systems. By allowing interactions between the separate environmental degrees of freedom in between collisions we are able to construct a collision model that allows to study quantum memory effects in open system dynamics. We also discuss the possibility to embed non-Markovian collision model dynamics into Markovian collision model dynamics in an extended state space. As a concrete example we show how using the proposed class of collision models we can discretely model non- Markovian amplitude damping of…
Quantum memory effects can be induced even when the degrees of freedom associated to the environment are not affected at all during the system evolution. In this paper, based on a bipartite representation of the system-environment dynamics, we found the more general interactions that lead to this class of quantum non-Markovian "casual bystander environments." General properties of the resulting dynamics are studied with focus on the system-environment correlations, a collisional measurement-based representation, and the quantum regression hypothesis. Memory effects are also characterized throu…
We study the dynamics of a spin-1/2 particle interacting with a multi-spin environment, modelling the corresponding open system dynamics through a collision-based model. The environmental particles are prepared in individual thermal states, and we investigate the effects of a distribution of temperatures across the spin environment on the evolution of the system, particularly how thermalisation in the long-time limit is affected. %We also address the conditions under which the system reaches a stationary state, with particular attention to whether homogenization to the average environmental st…
We address the microscopic derivation of a quantum master equation in Lindblad form for the dynamics of a massive test particle with internal degrees of freedom interacting through collisions with a background ideal gas. When either internal or centre of mass degrees of freedom can be treated classically, previously established equations are obtained as special cases. If in an interferometric setup the internal degrees of freedom are not detected at the output, the equation can be recast in the form of a generalized Lindblad structure, which describes non-Markovian effects. The effect of inter…
We present a new optical scheme enabling the implementation of highly stable and configurable non-Markovian dynamics. Here one photon qubit can circulate in a multipass bulk geometry consisting of two concatenated Sagnac interferometers to simulate the so called collisional model, where the system interacts at discrete times with a vacuum environment. We show the optical features of our apparatus and three different implementations of it, replicating a pure Markovian scenario and two non-Markovian ones, where we quantify the information backflow by tracking the evolution of the initial entangl…
Memoryless time evolutions are ubiquitous in nature but often correspond to a resolution-induced approximation, i.e. there are correlations in time whose effects are undetectable. Recent advances in the dynamical control of small quantum systems provide the ideal scenario to probe some of these effects. Here we experimentally demonstrate the precise induction of memory effects on the evolution of a quantum coin (qubit) by correlations engineered in its environment. In particular, we design a collisional model in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and precisely control the strength of the effects…
This study concerns with the dynamics of a quantum neural network unit in order to examine the suitability of simple neural computing tasks. More specifically, we examine the dynamics of an interacting spin model chosen as a candidate of a quantum perceptron for closed and open quantum systems. We adopt a collisional model enables examining both Markovian and non-Markovian dynamics of the proposed quantum system. We show that our quantum neural network (QNN) unit has a stable output quantum state in contact with an environment carrying information content. By the performed numerical simulation…
We study the performance of a quantum Otto cycle using a harmonic work medium and undergoing collisional dynamics with finite-size reservoirs. We span the dynamical regimes of the work strokes from strongly non-adiabatic to quasi-static conditions, and address the effects that non-Markovianity of the open-system dynamics of the work medium can have on the efficiency of the thermal machine. While such efficiency never surpasses the classical upper bound valid for finite-time stochastic engines, the behaviour of the engine shows clear-cut effects induced by both the finiteness of the evolution t…
Quantum collision models are receiving increasing attention as they describe many nontrivial phenomena in dynamics of open quantum systems. In a general scenario of both fundamental and practical interest, a quantum system repeatedly interacts with individual particles or modes forming a correlated and structured reservoir; however, classical and quantum environment correlations greatly complicate the calculation and interpretation of the system dynamics. Here we propose an exact solution to this problem based on the tensor network formalism. We find a natural Markovian embedding for the syste…
This MS thesis explores the effects and origins of a 'noise with memory' in the dynamics of an open quantum system. The system considered here is a multi-qubit register performing the Grover's quantum search algorithm. We show that a Markovian-correlated noise can enhance the efficiency of the algorithm over a time correlation-less noise. We also analytically find the set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the algorithm's success probability to remain invariant with respect to the number of noisy sites in the register and point out that these conditions hold irrespective of the presenc…
We introduce jumptime unraveling as a distinct description of open quantum systems. As our starting point, we consider quantum jump trajectories, which emerge, physically, from continuous quantum measurements, or, formally, from the unraveling of Markovian quantum master equations. If the stochastically evolving quantum trajectories are ensemble-averaged at specific times, the resulting quantum states are solutions to the associated quantum master equation. We demonstrate that quantum trajectories can also be ensemble-averaged at specific jump counts. The resulting jumptime-averaged quantum st…
We present two different methods for modelling non-Markovian quantum light-matter interactions in waveguide QED systems, using matrix product states (MPSs) and a space-discretized waveguide (SDW) model. After describing the general theory and implementation of both approaches, we compare and contrast these methods directly on three topical problems of interest in waveguide-QED, including (i) a two-level system (TLS) coupled to an infinite (one-dimensional) waveguide, (ii) a TLS coupled to a terminated waveguide with a time-delayed coherent feedback, and (iii) two spatially separated TLSs coupl…
We employ the theoretical framework of positive operator valued measures, to study Markovian open quantum systems. In particular, we discuss how a quantum system influences its environment. Using the theory of indirect measurements, we then draw conclusions about the information we could hypothetically obtain about the system by observing the environment. Although the environment is not actually observed, we can use these results to describe the change of the quantum system due to its interaction with the environment. We apply this technique to two different problems. In the first part, we stu…
