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arXiv:1208.1441 · Physical Review A

Investigating the generality of time-local master equations

Daniel Maldonado-Mundo, Patrik Öhberg, Brendon W. Lovett, Erika Andersson

Published Oct 8, 2012• 24 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Time-local master equations are more generally applicable than is often recognized, but at first sight, it would seem that they can only safely be used in time intervals where the time evolution is invertible. Using the Jaynes-Cummings model, we here construct an explicit example where two different Hamiltonians, corresponding to two different noninvertible and non-Markovian time evolutions, lead to arbitrarily similar time-local master equations. This illustrates how the time-local master equation, on its own in this case, does not uniquely determine the time evolution. The example is, nevertheless, artificial in the sense that a rapid change in (at least) one of the Hamiltonians is needed. The change must also occur at a very specific instance in time. If a Hamiltonian is known not to have such very specific behavior but is ``physically well behaved,'' then one may conjecture that a time-local master equation also determines the time evolution when it is not invertible.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.042107

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Time-local master equations are more generally applicable than is often recognized, but at first sight, it would seem that they can only safely be used in time intervals where the time evolution is invertible. Using the Jaynes-Cummings model, we here construct an explicit example where two different Hamiltonians, corresponding to two different noninvertible and non-Markovian time evolutions, lead to arbitrarily similar time-local master equations. This illustrates how the time-local master equation, on its own in this case, does not uniquely determine the time evolution. The example is, nevertheless, artificial in the sense that a rapid change in (at least) one of the Hamiltonians is needed. The change must also occur at a very specific instance in time. If a Hamiltonian is known not to have such very specific behavior but is ``physically well behaved,'' then one may conjecture that a time-local master equation also determines the time evolution when it is not invertible.
We propose a novel formulation of master equations for open systems wherein the evolution of a state is determined solely by its local behaviour at any point of time. Specifically, our formulation allows for a local interpretation of the workings of beyond-Markovian dynamics as opposed to the more common conception that non-Markovian state evolution is affected by its cumulative past history. Quite interestingly, local determinacy is found prevalent in quantum dynamics. We illustrate the advantages of our coordinate-free formulation with exact analyses on two physically relevant models.
For any master equation which is local in time, whether Markovian, non-Markovian, of Lindblad form or not, a general procedure is given for constructing the corresponding linear map from the initial state to the state at time t, including its Kraus-type representations. Formally, this is equivalent to solving the master equation. For an N-dimensional Hilbert space it requires (i) solving a first order N 2×N 2 matrix time evolution (to obtain the completely positive map), and (ii) diagonalizing a related N 2×N 2 matrix (to obtain a Kraus-type representation). Conversely, for a given time-dependent linear map, a necessary and sufficient condition is given for the existence of a corresponding master equation, where the (not necessarily unique) form of this equation is explicitly determined. It is shown that a “best possible” master equation may always be defined, for approximating the evolution in the case that no exact master equation exists. Examples involving qubits are given.
Master equations govern the time evolution of a quantum system interacting with an environment, and may be written in a variety of forms. Time-independent or memoryless master equations, in particular, can be cast in the well-known Lindblad form. Any time-local master equation, Markovian or non-Markovian, may in fact also be written in a Lindblad-like form. A diagonalization procedure results in a unique, and in this sense canonical, representation of the equation, which may be used to fully characterize the non-Markovianity of the time evolution. Recently, several different measures of non-Markovianity have been presented which reflect, to varying degrees, the appearance of negative decoherence rates in the Lindblad-like form of the master equation. We therefore propose using the negative decoherence rates themselves, as they appear in the canonical form of the master equation, to completely characterize non-Markovianity. The advantages of this are especially apparent when more than one decoherence channel is present. We show that a measure proposed by Rivas et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 050403 (2010)] is a surprisingly simple function of the canonical decoherence rates, and give an example of a master equation that is non-Markovian for all times t>0t>0t>0, but to which nearly all proposed measures are blind. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for trace distance and volume measures to witness non-Markovianity, in terms of the Bloch damping matrix.
We analyze a local approach to the non-Markovian evolution of open quantum systems. It turns out that any dynamical map representing evolution of such a system may be described either by non-local master equation with memory kernel or equivalently by equation which is local in time. The price one pays for the local approach is that the corresponding generator might be highly singular and it keeps the memory about the starting point "t0". This is the very essence of non-Markovianity. We illustrate a local approach by simple examples.
We analyze non-Markovian evolution of open quantum systems. It is shown that any dynamical map representing the evolution of such a system may be described either by a nonlocal master equation with a memory kernel or equivalently by an equation which is local in time. These two descriptions are complementary: if one is simple, the other is quite involved, or even singular, and vice versa. The price one pays for the local approach is that the corresponding generator keeps the memory about the starting point "t{0}." This is the very essence of non-Markovianity. Interestingly, this generator might be highly singular; nevertheless, the corresponding dynamics is perfectly regular. Remarkably, the singularities of the generator may lead to interesting physical phenomena such as the revival of coherence or sudden death and revival of entanglement.
Master equations describing open quantum dynamics are typically first-order differential equations. When such dynamics brings the trajectories in state space of more than one initial state to the same point at finite instants in time, the generator of the corresponding master equation becomes singular while the dynamical map becomes noninvertible. The first-order, time-local, homogeneous master equations then fail to describe the dynamics beyond the singular point. Retaining time locality in the master equation necessitates a reformulation in terms of higher-order differential equations. We formulate a method to eliminate the divergent behavior of the generator by using a combination of higher-order derivatives of the generator with suitable weights and illustrate it with several examples. We also present a detailed study of the central spin model and we propose the average rate of information inflow in non-Markovian processes as a quantity that captures a different aspect of non-Markovian dynamics.