We derive closed-form propagators for any
K-qubit subsystem of a closed
N-qubit network with a single conserved excitation. A single transition amplitude simultaneously controls excitation flow between subsystems, the positivity and complete positivity of every propagator, the entanglement entropy of every subsystem, and the quantum Fisher information for global parameters. Positivity and complete positivity coincide, determined solely by the direction of excitation flow, independently of subsystem size, coherence, or entanglement structure. A propagator is positive and completely positive if and only if it contracts the subsystem state toward its fixed point. The ensemble of propagators collectively constrains global properties inaccessible to any single subsystem. For single-qubit subsystems, we characterize the ensemble's fixed-point distribution and domain of positivity, finding a band of states that lies inside the positivity domain of every propagator yet is never visited by the physical dynamics. The quantum Fisher information decomposes into state and process contributions over any observation window
[t1,t2], with the state contribution bounded while the process contribution grows secularly. The total Fisher information is minimal when all future propagators are nonpositive and not completely positive, and near its maximum when they are positive and completely positive.
This paper discusses quantum adiabatic elimination, which is a model reduction technique for a composite Lindblad system consisting of a fast decaying subsystem coupled to another subsystem with a much slower timescale. Such a system features an invariant manifold that is close to the slow subsystem. This invariant manifold is reached subsequent to the decay of the fast degrees of freedom, after which the slow dynamics follow on it. By parametrizing the invariant manifold, the slow dynamics can be simulated via a reduced model. To find the evolution of the reduced state, we perform an asymptotic expansion with respect to the timescale separation. So far, the second-order expansion has mostly been considered. It has then been revealed that the second-order expansion of the reduced dynamics is generally given by a Lindblad equation, which ensures complete positivity of the time evolution. In this paper, we present two examples where complete positivity of the reduced dynamics is violated with higher-order contributions. In the first example, the violation is detected for the evolution of the partial trace without truncation of the asymptotic expansion. The partial trace is not the only way to parametrize the slow dynamics. Concerning this nonuniqueness, it was conjectured in [Quantum Sci. Technol. 2, 044011 (2017)] that there exists a parameter choice ensuring complete positivity. With the second example, however, we refute this conjecture by showing that complete positivity cannot be restored in any choice of parametrization. We discuss these results in terms of the invariant slow manifold consisting of quantum correlated states.