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 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…
The Monte Carlo wave function method or the quantum trajectory/jump approach is a powerful tool to study dissipative dynamics governed by the Markovian master equation, in particular for high-dimensional systems and when it is difficult to simulate directly. In this paper, we extend this method to the non-Markovian case described by the generalized Lindblad master equation. Two examples to illustrate the method are presented and discussed. The results show that the method can correctly reproduce the dissipative dynamics for the system. The difference between this method and the traditional Mar…
We derive the explicit commutation relations for the generators of quantum dynamical semigroup - Markovian superoperator evolution, allowing the extension of Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff-type relations to general Lindblad-type evolutions. This provides a novel tool for exploring the interaction of time-dependent coherent and Markovian evolutions - a surprisingly rich set of behaviors which include deformation by coherent driving of Markovian terms, generation of new Lindblad terms from time-dependent noise and even a coherent driving term generated by the interaction of time-separated Markovian no…
We find the conditions under which a quantum regression theorem can be assumed valid for non-Markovian master equations consisting in Lindblad superoperators with memory kernels. Our considerations are based on a generalized Born-Markov approximation, which allows us to obtain our results from an underlying Hamiltonian description. We demonstrate that a non-Markovian quantum regression theorem can only be granted in a stationary regime if the dynamics satisfies a quantum detailed balance condition. As an example we study the correlations of a two level system embedded in a complex structured r…
The dynamics of a typical open quantum system, namely a quantum Brownian particle in a harmonic potential, is studied focussing on its non-Markovian regime. Both an analytic approach and a stochastic wave function approach are used to describe the exact time evolution of the system. The border between two very different dynamical regimes, the Lindblad and non-Lindblad regimes, is identified and the relevant physical variables governing the passage from one regime to the other are singled out. The non-Markovian short time dynamics is studied in detail by looking at the mean energy, the squeezin…
The "correlated-projection technique" has been successfully applied to derive a large class of highly non Markovian dynamics, the so called non Markovian generalized Lindblad type equations or Lindblad rate equations. In this article, general unravellings are presented for these equations, described in terms of jump-diffusion stochastic differential equations for wave functions. We show also that the proposed unravelling can be interpreted in terms of measurements continuous in time, but with some conceptual restrictions. The main point in the measurement interpretation is that the structure i…
It is by now well understood that quantum dissipative processes can be harnessed and turned into a resource for quantum-information processing tasks. In this paper we demonstrate yet another way in which this is true by providing a dissipation-assisted protocol for the simulation of general Markovian dynamics. More precisely, we show how a suitable coherent coupling of a quantum system to a set of Markovian dissipating qubits allows one to enact an effective Liouvillian generator of any Lindbladian form. This effective dynamical generator arises from high-order virtual-dissipative processes an…
We investigate how to model Markovian evolution of coupled harmonic oscillators, each of them interacting with a local environment. When the coupling between the oscillators is weak, dissipation may be modeled using local Lindblad terms for each of the oscillators in the master equation, as is commonly done. When the coupling between oscillators is strong, this model may become invalid. We derive a master equation for two coupled harmonic oscillators which are subject to individual heat baths modeled by a collection of harmonic oscillators, and show that this master equation in general contain…
An experimentally realizable model based on the interaction between an excited two-level atom and a radiation field inside two quantum electrodynamics cavities is proposed. It consists of sending an excited two-level atom through two serial cavities which contain the radiation field. Hence, the Lindblad master equation described the reduced density matrix of the joint-joint field system inside the cavities is exactly solved in Markovian and non-Markovian regimes. However, the rate of entanglement inherent in the total field-field system are evaluated using various witnesses of entanglement suc…
In this paper we demonstrate that Lindblad equations characterized by a random rate variable arise after tracing out a complex structured reservoir. Our results follows from a generalization of the Born-Markov approximation, which relies in the possibility of splitting the complex environment in a direct sum of sub-reservoirs, each one being able to induce by itself a Markovian system evolution. Strong non-Markovian effects, which microscopically originate from the entanglement with the different sub-reservoirs, characterize the average system decay dynamics. As an example, we study the anomal…
Quantum systems interacting with an unknown environment are notoriously difficult to model, especially in presence of non-Markovian and non-perturbative effects. Here we introduce a neural network based approach, which has the mathematical simplicity of the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad master equation, but is able to model non-Markovian effects in different regimes. This is achieved by using recurrent neural networks for defining Lindblad operators that can keep track of memory effects. Building upon this framework, we also introduce a neural network architecture that is able to repro…
In this paper we derive an extra class of non-Markovian master equations where the system state is written as a sum of auxiliary matrixes whose evolution involve Lindblad contributions with local coupling between all of them, resembling the structure of a classical rate equation. The system dynamics may develops strong non-local effects such as the dependence of the stationary properties with the system initialization. These equations are derived from alternative microscopic interactions, such as complex environments described in a generalized Born-Markov approximation and tripartite system-en…
A large class of non-Markovian quantum processes in open systems can be formulated through time-local master equations which are not in Lindblad form. It is shown that such processes can be embedded in a Markovian dynamics which involves a time dependent Lindblad generator on an extended state space. If the state space of the open system is given by some Hilbert space ${\mathcal{H}}$, the extended state space is the triple Hilbert space ${\mathcal{H}}\otimes{\mathbb C}^3$ which is obtained by combining the open system with a three state system. This embedding is used to derive an unraveling fo…
We develop an exact framework to describe the non-Markovian dynamics of an open quantum system interacting with an environment modeled by a generalized spectral density function. The approach relies on mapping the initial system onto an auxiliary configuration, comprising the original open system coupled to a small number of discrete modes, which in turn are each coupled to an independent Markovian reservoir. Based on the connection between the discrete modes and the poles of the spectral density function, we show how expanding the system using the discrete modes allows for the full inclusion …
Markovian dynamics of open quantum systems are described by the L-GKS equation, known also as the Lindblad equation. The equation is expressed by means of left and right matrix multiplications. This formulation hampers numerical implementations. Representing the dynamics by a matrix-vector notation overcomes this problem. We review three approaches to obtain such a representation. The methods are demonstrated for a driven two-level system subject to spontaneous emission.
We present a general scheme to map correlated nonequilibrium quantum impurity problems onto an auxiliary open quantum system of small size. The infinite fermionic reservoirs of the original system are thereby replaced by a small number $N_B$ of noninteracting auxiliary bath sites whose dynamics is described by a Lindblad equation. Due to the presence of the intermediate bath sites, the overall dynamics acting on the impurity site is non-Markovian. With the help of an optimization scheme for the auxiliary Lindblad parameters, an accurate mapping is achieved, which becomes exponentially exact up…
By exploiting the peculiarities of a recently introduced formalism for describing open quantum systems (the Parametric Representation with Environmental Coherent States) we derive an equation of motion for the reduced density operator of an open quantum system that has the same structure of the celebrated Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad equation, but holds regardless of markovianity being assumed. The operators in our result have explicit expressions in terms of the Hamiltonian describing the interactions with the environment, and can be computed once a specific model is considered. We f…
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 a total thermodynamic entropy production rate of an isolated quantum system. In particular, we consider a quantum model of coupled harmonic oscillators in a star configuration, where a central harmonic oscillator (system) is coupled to a finite number of surrounding harmonic oscillators (bath). In this model, when the initial state of the total system is given by the tensor product of the Gibbs states of the system and the bath, every harmonic oscillator is always in a Gibbs state with a time-dependent temperature. This enables us to define time-dependent thermodynamic entropy f…
Open quantum system interacting with structured environment is important and manifests non- Markovian behavior, which was conventionally studied using quantum trajectory stochastic method. In this paper, by dividing the effects of the environment into two parts, we propose a deterministic method without using quantum trajectory. This method is more efficient and accurate than stochastic method in most Markovian and non-Markovian cases. We also extend this method to the generalized Lindblad master equation.
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…
We treat several key stochastic equations for non-Markovian open quantum system dynamics and present a formalism for finding solutions to them via canonical perturbation theory, without making the Born-Markov or rotating wave approximations (RWA). This includes master equations of the (asymptotically) stationary, periodic, and time-nonlocal type. We provide proofs on the validity and meaningfulness of the late-time perturbative master equation and on the preservation of complete positivity despite a general lack of Lindblad form. More specifically, we show how the algebraic generators satisfy …
Floquet-Magnus (FM) expansion theory is a powerful tool in periodically driven (Floquet) systems under high-frequency drives. In closed systems, it dictates that their stroboscopic dynamics under a time-periodic Hamiltonian is well captured by the FM expansion, which gives a static effective Hamiltonian. On the other hand, in dissipative systems driven by a time-periodic Liouvillian, it remains an important and nontrivial problem whether the FM expansion gives a static Liouvillian describing continuous-time Markovian dynamics, which we refer to as the Liouvillianity of the FM expansion. We ans…
We formulate the general approach based on the Lindblad equation to calculate the full counting statistics of work and heat produced by driven quantum systems weakly coupled with a Markovian thermal bath. The approach can be applied to a wide class of dissipative quantum systems driven by an arbitrary force protocol. We show the validity of general fluctuation relations and consider several generic examples. The possibilities of using calorimetric measurements to test the presence of coherence and entanglement in the open quantum systems are discussed.
We investigate generalized non-Markovian stochastic Schroeodinger equations (SSEs), driven by a multidimensional counting process and multidimensional Brownian motion introduced by A. Barchielli and C. Pellegrini [J. Math. Phys. 51, 112104 (2010)]. We show, that these SSEs can be translated in a non-linear form, which can be efficiently simulated. The simulation is illustrated by the model of a two-level system in a structured bath and the results of the simulations are compared with the exact solution of the generalized master equation.
Efficient methods for the description of the non-Markovian dynamics of open systems play an important role in many proposed applications of quantum mechanics. Here we review some of the most important tools that are based on the projection operator techniques of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The standard product-state projection is generalized to a new class of correlated projection superoperators that allow the treatment of strong memory effects, and lead to a non-Markovian generalization of the Lindblad equation.
We identify the conditions that guarantee equivalence of the reduced dynamics of an open quantum system (OQS) for two different types of environments - one a continuous bosonic environment leading to a unitary system-environment evolution and the other a discrete-mode bosonic environment resulting in a system-mode (non-unitary) Lindbladian evolution. Assuming initial Gaussian states for the environments, we prove that the two OQS dynamics are equivalent if both the expectation values and two-time correlation functions of the environmental interaction operators are the same at all times for the…
We propose a complete treatment of a local in time dynamics of open quantum systems. In this approach Markovian evolution turns out to be a special case of a general non-Markovian one. We provide a general representation of the local generator which generalizes well known Lindblad representation for the Markovian dynamics. It shows that the structure of non-Markovian generators is highly intricate and the problem of their classification is still open. Simple examples illustrate our approach.
A semiclassical approximation for an evolving density operator, driven by a "closed" hamiltonian operator and "open" markovian Lindblad operators, is obtained. The theory is based on the chord function, i.e. the Fourier transform of the Wigner function. It reduces to an exact solution of the Lindblad master equation if the hamiltonian operator is a quadratic function and the Lindblad operators are linear functions of positions and momenta. Initially, the semiclassical formulae for the case of hermitian Lindblad operators are reinterpreted in terms of a (real) double phase space, generated by a…
The stroboscopic evolution of a time-periodically driven isolated quantum system can always be described by an effective time-independent Hamiltonian. Whether this concept can be generalized to open Floquet systems, described by a Markovian master equation with time-periodic Lindbladian generator, remains an open question. By using a two level system as a model, we explicitly show the existence of two well-defined parameter regions. In one region the stroboscopic evolution can be described by a Markovian master equation with a time-independent Floquet Lindbladian. In the other it cannot; but h…
In view of controlling finite dimensional open quantum systems, we provide a unified Lie-semigroup framework describing the structure of completely positive trace-preserving maps. It allows (i) to identify the Kossakowski-Lindblad generators as the Lie wedge of a subsemigroup, (ii) to link properties of Lie semigroups such as divisibility with Markov properties of quantum channels, and (iii) to characterise reachable sets and controllability in open systems. We elucidate when time-optimal controls derived for the analogous closed system already give good fidelities in open systems and when a m…
Many current problems of interest in quantum non-equilibrium are described by time-local master equations (TLMEs) for the density matrix that are not of the Lindblad form, that is, that are not strictly probability conserving and/or Markovian. Here we describe an generic approach by which the system of interest that obeys the TLME is coupled to an ancilla, such that the dynamics of the combined system-plus-ancilla is Markovian and thus described by a Lindblad equation. This in turn allows us to recover the properties of the original TLME dynamics from a physical unravelling of this associated …
The quantum jump approach allows to characterize the stochastic dynamics associated to an open quantum system submitted to a continuous measurement action. In this paper we show that this formalism can consistently be extended to non-Markovian system dynamics. The results rely in studying a measurement process performed on a bipartite arrangement characterized by a Markovian Lindblad evolution. Both a renewal and non-renewal extensions are found. The general structure of non-local master equations that admit an unravelling in terms of the corresponding non-Markovian trajectories are also found…
We analyse the problem of estimating a scalar parameter $g$ that controls the Hamiltonian of a quantum system subject to Markovian noise. Specifically, we place bounds on the growth rate of the quantum Fisher information with respect to $g$, in terms of the Lindblad operators and the $g$-derivative of the Hamiltonian $H$. Our new bounds are not only more generally applicable than those in the literature -- for example, they apply to systems with time-dependent Hamiltonians and/or Lindblad operators, and to infinite-dimensional systems such as oscillators -- but are also tighter in the settings…
Recently a generalized master equation was derived that extends the Lindblad theory to highly non-Markovian quantum processes (H.-P. Breuer, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{75}, 022103 (2007)). We perform a stochastic unravelling of this master equation by considering $n$ random state vectors that satisfy the corresponding stochastic differential equation for a piecewise deterministic process. As an application we consider a two-state system randomly coupled to an environment consisting of two energy bands with finite number of levels. Our numerical results are compared to results obtained from the time-…
To understand typical dynamics of an open quantum system in continuous time, we introduce an ensemble of random Lindblad operators, which generate Markovian completely positive evolution in the space of density matrices. Spectral properties of these operators, including the shape of the spectrum in the complex plane, are evaluated by using methods of free probabilities and explained with non-Hermitian random matrix models. We also demonstrate universality of the spectral features. The notion of ensemble of random generators of Markovian qauntum evolution constitutes a step towards categorizati…
We consider the problem of the measurement of a system occurring during a finite time interval, while environmentally-induced noise decreases the system-state coherence. We assume a Markovian measuring device and, therefore, use a Lindbladian description for the measurement dynamics. For studying the case of noise produced by a non-Markovian environment, whose definition does not include the measuring apparatus, we use the Redfield approach to the interaction between system and environment. In the present hybrid theory, to trace out the environmental degrees of freedom, we introduce an analyti…
In this paper I investigate the usability of the characteristic functions for the description of the dynamics of open quantum systems focussing on non-Lindblad-type master equations. I consider, as an example, a non-Markovian generalized master equation containing a memory kernel which may lead to nonphysical time evolutions characterized by negative values of the density matrix diagonal elements [S.M. Barnett and S. Stenholm, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 64}, 033808 (2001)]. The main result of the paper is to demonstrate that there exist situations in which the symmetrically ordered characteristic funct…
A well-known situation in which a non-Markovian dynamics of an open quantum system $S$ arises is when this is coherently coupled to an auxiliary system $M$ in contact with a Markovian bath. In such cases, while the joint dynamics of $S$-$M$ is Markovian and obeys a standard (bipartite) Lindblad-type master equation (ME), this is in general not true for the reduced dynamics of $S$. Furthermore, there are several instances (\eg the dissipative Jaynes-Cummings model) in which a {\it closed} ME for the $S$'s state {\it cannot} even be worked out. Here, we find a class of bipartite Lindblad-type ME…
It is shown that the operator sum representation for non-Markovian dynamics and the Lindblad master equation in Markovian limit can be derived from a formal solution to quantum Liouville equation for a qubit system in the presence of decoherence processes self-consistently. Our formulation is the first principle theory based on projection-operator formalism to obtain an exact reduced density operator in time-convolutionless form starting from the quantum Liouville equation for a noisy quantum computer. The advantage of our approach is that it is general enough to describe a realistic quantum c…
