We construct a large class of completely positive and trace preserving non-Markovian dynamical maps for an open quantum system. These maps arise from a piecewise dynamics characterized by a continuous time evolution interrupted by jumps, randomly distributed in time and described by a quantum channel. The state of the open system is shown to obey a closed evolution equation, given by a master equation with a memory kernel and a inhomogeneous term. The non-Markovianity of the obtained dynamics is explicitly assessed studying the behavior of the distinguishability of two different initial systems states with elapsing time.
When dealing with system-reservoir interactions in an open quantum system, such as a photosynthetic light-harvesting complex, approximations are usually made to obtain the dynamics of the system. One question immediately arises: how good are these approximations, and in what ways can we evaluate them? Here, we propose to use entanglement and a measure of non-Markovianity as benchmarks for the deviation of approximate methods from exact results. We apply two frequently-used perturbative but non-Markovian approximations to a photosynthetic dimer model and compare their results with that of the numerically-exact hierarchy equation of motion (HEOM). This enables us to explore both entanglement and non-Markovianity measures as means to reveal how the approximations either overestimate or underestimate memory effects and quantum coherence. In addition, we show that both the approximate and exact results suggest that non-Markonivity can, counter-intuitively, increase with temperature, and with the coupling to the environment.
The quantum master equation is a widespread approach to describing open quantum system dynamics. In this approach, the effect of the environment on the system evolution is entirely captured by the dynamical generator, providing a compact and versatile description. However, care needs to be taken when several noise processes act simultaneously or the Hamiltonian evolution of the system is modified. Here, we show that generators can be added at the master equation level without compromising physicality only under restrictive conditions. Moreover, even when adding generators results in legitimate dynamics, this does not generally correspond to the true evolution of the system. We establish a general condition under which direct addition of dynamical generators is justified, showing that it is ensured under weak coupling and for settings where the free system Hamiltonian and all system-environment interactions commute. In all other cases, we demonstrate by counterexamples that the exact evolution derived microscopically cannot be guaranteed to coincide with the dynamics naively obtained by adding the generators.
For a bosonic (fermionic) open system in a bath with many bosons (fermions) modes, we derive the exact non-Markovian master equation in which the memory effect of the bath is reflected in the time dependent decay rates. In this approach, the reduced density operator is constructed from the formal solution of the corresponding Heisenberg equations. As an application of the exact master equation, we study the active probing of non-Markovianity of the quantum dissipation of a single boson mode of electromagnetic (EM) field in a cavity QED system. The non-Markovianity of the bath of the cavity is explicitly reflected by the atomic decoherence factor.
We provide a rigorous construction of Markovian master equations for a wide class of quantum systems that encompass quadratic models of finite size, linearly coupled to an environment modeled by a set of independent thermal baths. Our theory can be applied for both fermionic and bosonic models in any number of physical dimensions, and does not require any particular spatial symmetry of the global system. We show that, for non-degenerate systems under a full secular approximation, the effective Lindblad operators are the normal modes of the system, with coupling constants that explicitly depend on the transformation matrices that diagonalize the Hamiltonian. Both the dynamics and the steady-state (guaranteed to be unique) properties can be obtained with a polynomial amount of resources in the system size. We also address the particle and energy current flowing through the system in a minimal two-bath scheme and find that they hold the structure of Landauers formula, being thermodynamically consistent.