Quantum dynamical maps provide suitable mathematical representation of quantum evolutions. It is the very notion of complete positivity which provides a proper mathematical representation of quantum evolution and gives rise to the powerful generalization of unitary evolution of closed Hamiltonian systems. A prominent example of quantum evolution of an open system is a Markovian semigroup. In what follows, we analyze both the semigroups of positive and completely positive maps. In the latter case the dynamics is governed by the celebrated Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan (GKLS) Master Equation. Markovian semigroups, however, provide only an approximate description of general quantum evolution. The main topic of our analysis are dynamical maps beyond this regime. Non-Markovian quantum evolution attracted a lot of attention in recent years and there is a vast literature dedicated to it. In this report we analyze quantum dynamics governed by time-local generators and/or non-local memory kernels. A special attention is devoted to the concept of {\em divisibility} which is often used as a definition of Markovianity. In particular, the concept of so called CP-divisibility (in contrast to P-divisibility) is widely accepted as a proper definition of quantum Markovianity. We discuss a number of important physical implications of divisibility. We also briefly discuss the notion of Markovianity beyond the dynamical map, that is, when one has an access to the evolution of `system + environment'. The entire exposition is concentrated more on the general concepts and intricate connections between them than on studying particular systems. We illustrate the analyzed concepts by paradigmatic models of open quantum systems like the amplitude damping and phase damping models.
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.
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 identify a set of dynamical maps of open quantum system, and refer to them as "$ ε$-Markovian" maps. It is constituted of maps which, in a higher dimensional system-environment Hilbert space, possibly violate Born approximation but only a "little". We characterize the "$ε$-nonmarkovianity" of a general dynamical map by the minimum distance of that map from the set of $ε$-Markovian maps. We analytically derive an inequality which gives a bound on the $ ε$-nonmarkovianity of the dynamical map, in terms of an entanglement-like resource generated between the system and its "immediate" environme…
We investigate the problem of reversing quantum dynamics, specifically via optimal Petz recovery maps. We focus on typical decoherence channels, such as dephasing, depolarizing and amplitude damping. We illustrate how well a physically implementable recovery map simulates an inverse evolution. We extend this idea to explore the use of recovery maps as an approximation of inverse maps, and apply it in the context of non-Markovian dynamics. We show how this strategy attenuates non-Markovian effects, such as the backflow of information.
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.
One of the most important topics in the study of the dynamics of open quantum system is information exchange between system and environment. Based on the features of a back-flow information from an environment to a system, an approach is provided to detect non-Markovianity for unital dynamical maps. The method takes advantage of non-contractive property of the von Neumann entropy under completely positive and trace preserving unital maps. Accordingly, for the dynamics of a single qubit as an open quantum system, the sign of the time-derivative of the density matrix eigenvalues of the system de…
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 construct a non-Markovian canonical dynamical map that accounts for systems correlated with the environment. The physical meaning of not completely positive maps is studied to obtain a theory of non-Markovian quantum dynamics. The relationship between inverse maps and correlations with the environment is established. A generalized non-Markovian master equation is derived from the canonical dynamical map that goes beyond the Kossakowski-Lindblad Markovian master equation. Non-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics can be be studied within this theory.
We investigate the entanglement dynamics of two initially entangled qubits interacting independently with two uncorrelated reservoirs beyond the Markovian approximation. Quite different from the Markovian reservoirs [C. E. Lopez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 080503], we find that entanglement sudden birth (ESB) of the two reservoirs occurs without certain symmetry with respect to the entanglement sudden death (ESD) of the two qubits. A phenomenological interpretation of entanglement revival is also given.
We characterize general non-Markovian Gaussian maps which are covariant under Galilean transformations. In particular, we characterize translational and Galilean covariant maps and show that they reduce to the known Holevo result in the Markovian limit. We apply the results to discuss measures of macroscopicity based on classicalization maps, specifically addressing dissipation, Galilean covariance and non-Markovianity. We further suggest a possible generalization of the macroscopicity measure defined in Nimmrichter and Hornbergerl. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 16 (2013)].
In this paper, we analyze the evolution of the generalized Pauli channels governed by the memory kernel master equation. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the memory kernel to give rise to the legitimate (completely positive and trace-preserving) quantum evolution. In particular, we analyze a class of kernels generating the quantum semi-Markov evolution, which is a natural generalization of the Markovian semigroup. Interestingly, the convex combination of Markovian semigroups goes beyond the semi-Markov case. Our analysis is illustrated with several examples.
We consider open quantum systems with factorized initial states, providing the structure of the reduced system dynamics, in terms of environment cumulants. We show that such completely positive (CP) and trace preserving (TP) maps can be unraveled by linear stochastic Schrödinger equations (SSEs) characterized by sets of colored stochastic processes (with n-th order cumulants). We obtain both the conditions such that the SSEs provide CPTP dynamics, and those for unraveling an open system dynamics. We then focus on Gaussian non-Markovian unravellings, whose known structure displays a functional …
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.
Quantum non-Markovianity of channels can be produced by mixing Markovian channels, as observed recently by various authors. We consider an analogous question of whether singularities of the channel can be produced by mixing non-singular channels, i.e., ones that lack them. Here we answer the question in the negative in the context of qubit Pauli channels. On the other hand, mixing channels with a singularity can lead to the elimination of singularities in the resultant channel. We distinguish between two types of singular channels, which lead under mixing to broadly quite different properties …
We introduce a non-Markovianity measure for continuous variable open quantum systems based on the idea put forward in H.-P. Breuer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.\textbf{103}, 210401 (2009), i.e., by quantifying the flow of information from the environment back to the open system. Instead of the trace distance we use here the fidelity to assess distinguishability of quantum states. We employ our measure to evaluate non-Markovianity of two paradigmatic Gaussian channels: the purely damping channel and the quantum Brownian motion channel with Ohmic environment. We consider different classes of Gaussian…
The so-called Maryland model is a linear version of the quantum kicked rotor; it exhibits Anderson localization in momentum space. By turning the kicks into a Markovian stochastic process, the dynamics becomes a dissipative quantum process described by a discrete family of completely positive maps that allows to explicitly study the relation between divisibility of the maps and the degree of memory of the process.
In the weak-coupling limit approach to open quantum systems, the presence of the bath is eliminated and accounted for by a master equation that introduces dissipative contributions to the system reduced dynamics. Within this framework, there are no bath entropy contributions to the entropy balance. We show that, as a consequence, the entropy production fails to be positive for a class of physically legitimate (i.e., completely positive and trace preserving) non-Markovian dynamical maps. Moreover, in the absence of the semigroup property, if the reduced dynamics has a thermal asymptotic state, …
We analyze the connections between the non-Markovianity degree of the most general phase-damping qubit maps and their legitimate mixtures. Using the results for image non-increasing dynamical maps, we formulate the necessary and sufficient conditions for the Pauli maps to satisfy specific divisibility criteria. Next, we examine how the non-Markovianity properties for (in general noninvertible) Pauli dynamical maps influence the properties of their convex combinations. Our results are illustrated with instructive examples. For P-divisible maps, we propose a legitimate time-local generator whose…
Quantum non-Markovianity is crucially related to the study of dynamical maps, which are usually derived for initially factorized system-bath states. We here demonstrate that linear response theory also provides a way to derive dynamical maps, but for initially correlated (and in general entangled) states. Importantly, these maps are always time-translational invariant and allow for a much simpler quantification of non-Markovianity compared to previous approaches. We apply our theory to the Caldeira-Leggett model, for which our quantifier is valid beyond linear response and can be expressed ana…
It is known that the dynamical evolution of a system, from an initial tensor product state of system and environment, to any two later times, t1,t2 (t2>t1), are both completely positive (CP) but in the intermediate times between t1 and t2 it need not be CP. This reveals the key to the Markov (if CP) and nonMarkov (if it is not CP) avataras of the intermediate dynamics. This is brought out here in terms of the quantum stochastic map A and the associated dynamical map B -- without resorting to master equation approaches. We investigate these features with four examples which have entirely differ…
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…
Various engine types are thermodynamically equivalent in the quantum limit of small 'engine action'. Our previous derivation of the equivalence is restricted to Markovian heat baths and to implicit classical work repository (e.g., laser light in the semi-classical approximation). In this paper all the components, baths, batteries, and engine, are explicitly taken into account. To neatly treat non-Markovian dynamics we use mediating particles that function as a heat exchanger. We find that on top of the previously observed equivalence there is a higher degree of equivalence that cannot be achie…
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.
The measurement-result-conditioned evolution of a system (e.g. an atom) with spontaneous emissions of photons is well described by the quantum trajectory (QT) theory. In this work we generalize the associated QT theory from infinitely wide bandwidth Markovian environment to the case of finite bandwidth non-Markovian environment. In particular, we generalize the treatment for arbitrary spectrum, which is not restricted by the specific Lorentzian case. We rigorously prove a general existence of a perfect scaling behavior jointly defined by the bandwidth of environment and the time interval betwe…
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 analyze the convex combinations of non-invertible generalized Pauli dynamical maps. By manipulating the mixing parameters, one can produce a channel with shifted singularities, additional singularities, or even no singularities whatsoever. In particular, we show how to use non-invertible dynamical maps to produce the Markovian semigroup. Interestingly, the maps whose mixing results in a semigroup are generated by the time-local generators and time-homogeneous memory kernels that are not regular; i.e., their formulas contain infinities. Finally, we show how the generators and memory kernels …
The Nakajima-Zwanzig(N-Z) equation is a powerful tool to analyze the open quantum system and non-Markovian behavior. In this paper, we modify the N-Z equation with assignment maps. This approach extends the application to those situations in which the bipartite state of the system and environment contains non-negligible discord initial and/or during the dynamics. We applied the equation in quantum lattice model and bound the influence of inhomogeneous terms, which figure out how the dimension of the environment impact the non-Markovian behavior.
The problem of defining quantum non-Markovianity has proven elusive, with various in-equivalent criteria put forth to address it. The concept of CP-indivisibility and the hierarchy of stronger divisibility criteria going up to P-indivisibility, capture a fundamental aspect of memory in quantum non-Markovianity. In practice, however, there can be a memory-like influence associated with divisible channels in the form of weakening, if not reversing, the effects of decoherence. Arguably, such a facet of memory relates to CP-indivisibility as quantum discord relates to entanglement. We concretize t…
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…
The degree of non-Markovianity of a continuous bath can be quantified by means of the coherence. This simple measure is experimentally accessible through Ramsey spectroscopy, but it is limited to incoherent dynamical maps. We propose an extension of this measure and discuss its application to color centers in diamond, where the optical coherence between two orbital states is affected by interactions with a structured phonon bath. By taking realistic phonon spectral density functions into account, we show that this measure is well-behaved at arbitrary temperatures and that it provides additiona…
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 phenomenological dissipation of the Bloch equations is reexamined in the context of completely positive maps. Such maps occur if the dissipation arises from a reduction of a unitary evolution of a system coupled to a reservoir. In such a case the reduced dynamics for the system alone will always yield completely positive maps of the density operator. We show that, for Markovian Bloch maps, the requirement of complete positivity imposes some Bloch inequalities on the phenomenological damping constants. For non-Markovian Bloch maps some kind of Bloch inequalities involving eigenvalues of the…
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 …
Given any two quantum states $ρ$ and $σ$ in Hilbert spaces of equal dimension satisfying the majorization condition $ρ\succ σ$, it is always possible to transform $ρ\mapsto σ$ by a unital quantum map. In fact, any such transformation can be achieved just by means of noisy operations, i.e., by access to maximally mixed ancillary states and unitary transformations that act jointly in the system-ancilla space. Here, we investigate the possible transitions between states (i.e., the induced preorder of states) when one restricts the unitary control to the quantum system alone and replaces the maxim…
Markovian master equations provide a versatile tool for describing open quantum systems when memory effects of the environment may be neglected. As these equations are of an approximate nature, they often do not respect the laws of thermodynamics when no secular approximation is performed in their derivation. Here we introduce a Markovian master equation that is thermodynamically consistent and provides an accurate description whenever memory effects can be neglected. The thermodynamic consistency is obtained through a rescaled Hamiltonian for the thermodynamic bookkeeping, exploiting the fact…
A precise understanding of the influence of a quantum system's environment on its dynamics, which is at the heart of the theory of open quantum systems, is crucial for further progress in the development of controllable large-scale quantum systems. However, existing approaches to account for complex system-environment interaction in the presence of memory effects are either based on heuristic and oversimplified principles or give rise to computational difficulties. In practice, one can leverage on available experimental data and replace first-principles simulations with a data-driven analysis …
The initial stages of the evolution of an open quantum system encode the key information of its underlying dynamical correlations, which in turn can predict the trajectory at later stages. We propose a general approach based on non-Markovian dynamical maps to extract this information from the initial trajectories and compress it into non-Markovian transfer tensors. Assuming time-translational invariance, the tensors can be used to accurately and efficiently propagate the state of the system to arbitrarily long timescales. The non-Markovian Transfer Tensor Method (TTM) demonstrates the coherent…
A systematic approach to the non-Markovian quantum dynamics of open systems is given by the projection operator techniques of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Combining these methods with concepts from quantum information theory and from the theory of positive maps, we derive a class of correlated projection superoperators that take into account in an efficient way statistical correlations between the open system and its environment. The result is used to develop a generalization of the Lindblad theory to the regime of highly non-Markovian quantum processes in structured environments.
We construct a dynamical map which is not positive divisible and does not present information backflow either (as measured by trace norm quantifiers). It is formulated for a qutrit system undergoing noninvertible dynamics. This provides an evidence that the two definitions of quantum Markovianity based on absence of information backflow and positive divisibility are nonequivalent for general noninvertible dynamical maps
We compare two approaches to non-Markovian quantum evolution: one based on the concept of divisible maps and the other one based on distinguishability of quantum states. The former concept is fully characterized in terms of local generator whereas it is in general not true for the latter one. A simple example of random unitary dynamics of a qubit shows the intricate difference between those approaches. Moreover, in this case both approaches are fully characterized in terms of local decoherence rates. As a byproduct it is shown that entropy might monotonically increase even for non-Markovian qu…
We propose a scheme in which the cooling of a mechanical resonator is achieved by exposing the optomechanical system to a non-Markovian environment. Because of the backflow from the non-Markovian environment, the phonon number can go beyond the conventional cooling limit in a Markovian environment. Utilizing the spectrum density obtained in the recent experiment [Nature Communications 6, 7606 (2015)], we show that the cooling process is highly effective in a non-Markovian environment. The analysis of the cooling mechanism in a non-Markovian environment reveals that the non-Markovian memory eff…
With continuing improvements on the quality of fabricated quantum devices, it becomes increasingly crucial to analyze noisy quantum process in greater details such as characterizing the non-Markovianity in a quantitative manner. In this work, we propose an experimental protocol, termed Spectral Transfer Tensor Maps (SpecTTM), to accurately predict the RHP non-Markovian measure of any Pauli channels without state-preparation and measurement (SPAM) errors. In fact, for Pauli channels, SpecTTM even allows the reconstruction of highly-precised noise power spectrum for qubits. At last, we also disc…
For a quantum gas, being subject to continuous feedback of a macroscopic observable, the single-particle dynamics is studied. Albeit feedback-induced particle correlations, it is shown that analytic solutions are obtained by formally extending the single-particle Hilbert space by an auxiliary degree of freedom. The particle's motion is then fed by colored noise, which effectively maps quantum-statistical correlations onto the single particle. Thus, the single particle in the continuously controlled gas follows a non-Markovian trajectory in phase-space.
