The degree of non-Markovianity allows one to characterize quantum evolutions that depart from a Markovian regime in a similar way as the Schmidt number measures the degree of entanglement of pure states. Maximally non-Markovian dynamics are analogous to maximally entangled states [D. Chru\ifmmode \acute{s}\else \'{s}\fi{}ci\ifmmode \acute{n}\else \'{n}\fi{}ski and S. Maniscalco, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 120404 (2014)]. Here we demonstrate that there exists a class of maximally non-Markovian quantum evolutions where the associated environment (degrees of freedom not belonging to the system) obeys a Markovian (memoryless) dynamics, which in turn is unperturbed by the system state or dynamics. These properties imply the absence of any ``physical environment-to-system backflow of information.'' Non-Markovian features (as usual in quantum systems coupled to dissipative classical degrees of freedom) arise from a unidirectional dependence of the system dynamics on the reservoir states.
The degree of non-Markovianity allows one to characterize quantum evolutions that depart from a Markovian regime in a similar way as the Schmidt number measures the degree of entanglement of pure states. Maximally non-Markovian dynamics are analogous to maximally entangled states [D. Chru\ifmmode \acute{s}\else '{s}\fi{}ci\ifmmode \acute{n}\else '{n}\fi{}ski and S. Maniscalco, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 120404 (2014)]. Here we demonstrate that there exists a class of maximally non-Markovian quantum evolutions where the associated environment (degrees of freedom not belonging to the system) obeys a Markovian (memoryless) dynamics, which in turn is unperturbed by the system state or dynamics. These properties imply the absence of any ``physical environment-to-system backflow of information.'' Non-Markovian features (as usual in quantum systems coupled to dissipative classical degrees of freedom) arise from a unidirectional dependence of the system dynamics on the reservoir states.
Non-Markovian dynamics are characterized by information backflows, where the evolving open quantum system retrieves part of the information previously lost in the environment. Hence, the very definition of non-Markovianity implies an initial time interval when the evolution is noisy, otherwise no backflow could take place. We identify two types of initial noise, where the first has the only effect of degrading the information content of the system, while the latter is essential for the appearance of non-Markovian phenomena. Therefore, all non-Markovian evolutions can be divided into two classes: noisy non-Markovian (NNM), showing both types of noise, and pure non-Markovian (PNM), implementing solely essential noise. We make this distinction through a timing analysis of fundamental non-Markovian features. First, we prove that all NNM dynamics can be simulated through a Markovian pre-processing of a PNM core. We quantify the gains in terms of information backflows and non-Markovianity measures provided by PNM evolutions. Similarly, we study how the entanglement breaking property behaves in this framework and we discuss a technique to activate correlation backflows. Finally, we show the applicability of our results through the study of several well-know dynamical models.
Non-Markovian effects in an open-system dynamics are usually associated to information backflows from the environment to the system. However, the way these backflows manifest and how to detect them is unclear. A natural approach is to study the backflow in terms of the correlations the evolving system displays with another unperturbed system during the dynamics. In this work, we study the power of this approach to witness non-Markovian dynamics using different correlation measures. We identify simple dynamics where the failure of completely positive divisibility is in one-to-one correspondence with a correlation backflow. We then focus on specific correlation measures, such as those based on entanglement and the mutual information, and identify their strengths and limitations. We conclude with a study of a recently introduced correlation measures based on state distinguishability and see how, for these measures, adding an extra auxiliary system enlarges the set of detectable non-Markovian dynamics.
The issue of whether non-Markovianity (NM) could be considered as a resource in quantum information has been a subject of intense debate in recent years. Recently, a simple mechanism was proposed in which one of the main features of NM, the backflow of information from the environment to the system, represents a fundamental and quantifiable resource for generating entanglement within an open quantum system coupled to a finite and small environment [N. Mirkin, P. Poggi, and D. Wisniacki, Phys. Rev. A 99, 020301(R) (2019)]. In this work, we extend the validity of this resource mechanism by studying a completely different and more general scheme where the system is coupled to an infinite structured reservoir. Under both setups, we show that the degree of NM univocally determines the optimal degree of entanglement reachable by controlling the open system. This result strongly suggests the universality of a quantitative relation between entanglement and NM by using quantum optimal control.
We consider a two-level open quantum system undergoing pure dephasing, dissipative, or multiply decohering dynamics and show that whenever the dynamics is non-Markovian, the initial speed of evolution is a monotonic function of the relevant physical parameter driving the transition between the Markovian and non-Markovian behavior of the dynamics. In particular, within the considered models, a speed increase can only be observed in the presence of backflow of information from the environment to the system.
Abstract The information encoded into an open quantum system that evolves under a Markovian dynamics is always monotonically non-increasing. Nonetheless, for a given quantifier of the information contained in the system, it is in general not clear if for all non-Markovian dynamics it is possible to observe a non-monotonic evolution of this quantity, namely a backflow. We address this problem by considering correlations of finite-dimensional bipartite systems. For this purpose, we consider a class of correlation measures and prove that if the dynamics is non-Markovian there exists at least one element from this class that provides a correlation backflow. Moreover, we provide a set of initial probe states that accomplish this witnessing task. This result provides the first one-to-one relation between non-Markovian quantum dynamics and correlation backflows. Finally, we introduce a measure of non-Markovianity.
Open quantum systems are inherently coupled to their environments, which in turn also obey quantum dynamical rules. Restricting ourselves to dissipative dynamics, here we propose a measure that quantifies how far the action of an environment on a system departs from the influence of classical noise fluctuations. It is based on the lack of commutativity between the initial reservoir state and the total system-environment Hamiltonian. Independently of the nature of the dissipative system evolution, Markovian or non-Markovian, the measure can be written in terms of the dual propagator that defines the evolution of system operators. The physical meaning and properties of the proposed definition are discussed in detail and also characterized through different paradigmatic dissipative Markovian and non-Markovian open quantum dynamics.