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arXiv:1109.2438 · Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Measuring non-Markovianity of processes with controllable system-environment interaction

Jian‐Shun Tang, Chuan‐Feng Li, Yulong Li, Xu‐Bo Zou, Guang‐Can Guo, Heinz‐Peter Breuer, Elsi-Mari Laine, Jyrki Piilo

Published Jan 1, 2012• 127 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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 quantum processes is indeed feasible which could be useful in the development of quantum memory and communication devices.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/97/10002

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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 quantum processes is indeed feasible which could be useful in the development of quantum memory and communication devices.
The modeling and analysis of the dynamics of complex systems often requires to employ non-Markovian stochastic processes. While there is a clear and well-established mathematical definition for non-Markovianity in the case of classical systems, the extension to the quantum regime recently caused a vivid debate, leading to many different proposals for the characterization and quantification of memory effects in the dynamics of open quantum systems. Here, we derive a mathematical representation for the non-Markovianity measure based on the exchange of information between the open system and its environment, which reveals the locality and universality of non-Markovianity in the quantum state space and substantially simplifies its numerical and experimental determination. We further illustrate the application of this representation by means of an all-optical experiment which allows the measurement of the degree of memory effects in a photonic quantum process with high accuracy.
Recent developments in practical quantum engineering and control techniques have allowed significant developments for experimental studies of open quantum systems and decoherence engineering. Indeed, it has become possible to test experimentally various theoretical, mathematical, and physical concepts related to non-Markovian quantum dynamics. This includes experimental characterization and quantification of non-Markovian memory effects and proof-of-principle demonstrations how to use them for certain quantum communication and information tasks. We describe here recent experimental advances for open system studies, focussing in particular to non-Markovian dynamics including the applications of memory effects, and discuss the possibilities for ultimate control of decoherence and open system dynamics.
The simulation of open quantum dynamics has recently allowed the direct investigation of the features of system-environment interaction and of their consequences on the evolution of a quantum system. Such interaction threatens the quantum properties of the system, spoiling them and causing the phenomenon of decoherence. Sometimes however a coherent exchange of information takes place between system and environment, memory effects arise and the dynamics of the system becomes non-Markovian. Here we report the experimental realisation of a non-Markovian process where system and environment are coupled through a simulated transverse Ising model. By engineering the evolution in a photonic quantum simulator, we demonstrate the role played by system-environment correlations in the emergence of memory effects.
The basic features of the dynamics of open quantum systems, such as the dissipation of energy, the decay of coherences, the relaxation to an equilibrium or non-equilibrium stationary state, and the transport of excitations in complex structures are of central importance in many applications of quantum mechanics. The theoretical description, analysis and control of non-Markovian quantum processes play an important role in this context. While in a Markovian process an open system irretrievably loses information to its surroundings, non-Markovian processes feature a flow of information from the environment back to the open system, which implies the presence of memory effects and represents the key property of non-Markovian quantum behavior. Here, we review recent ideas developing a general mathematical definition for non-Markoviantiy in the quantum regime and a measure for the degree of memory effects in the dynamics of open systems which are based on the exchange of information between system and environment. We further study the dynamical effects induced by the presence of system-environment correlations in the total initial state and design suitable methods to detect such correlations through local measurements on the open system.
In this Thesis various aspects of memory effects in the dynamics of open quantum systems are studied. We develop a general theoretical framework for open quantum systems beyond the Markov approximation which allows us to investigate different sources of memory effects and to develop methods for harnessing them in order to realise controllable open quantum systems. \n \nIn the first part of the Thesis a characterisation of non-Markovian dynamics in terms of information flow is developed and applied to study different sources of memory effects. Namely, we study nonlocal memory effects which arise due to initial correlations between two local environments and further the memory effects induced by initial correlations between the open system and the environment. \n \nThe last part focuses on describing two all-optical experiment in which through selective preparation of the initial environment states the information flow between the system and the environment can be controlled. In the first experiment the system is driven from the Markovian to the non- Markovian regime and the degree of non-Markovianity is determined. In the second experiment we observe the nonlocal nature of the memory effects and provide a novel method to experimentally quantify frequency correlations in photonic environments via polarisation measurements.
The study of open quantum systems is important for fundamental issues of quantum physics as well as for technological applications such as quantum information processing. Recent developments in this field have increased our basic understanding on how non-Markovian effects influence the dynamics of an open quantum system, paving the way to exploit memory effects for various quantum control tasks. Most often, the environment of an open system is thought to act as a sink for the system information. However, here we demonstrate experimentally that a photonic open system can exploit the information initially held by its environment. Correlations in the environmental degrees of freedom induce nonlocal memory effects where the bipartite open system displays, counterintuitively, local Markovian and global non-Markovian character. Our results also provide novel methods to protect and distribute entanglement and to experimentally quantify correlations in photonic environments.