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arXiv:2101.11662 · Quantum Science and Technology

Transfer-tensor description of memory effects in open-system dynamics and multi-time statistics

Stefano Gherardini, Andrea Smirne, Susana F. Huelga, Filippo Caruso

Published Dec 17, 2021• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The non-Markovianity of an arbitrary open quantum system is analyzed in reference to the multi-time statistics given by its monitoring at discrete times. On the one hand, we exploit the hierarchy of inhomogeneous transfer tensors (TTs), which provides us with relevant information about the role of correlations between the system and the environment in the dynamics. The connection between the TT hierarchy and the CP-divisibility property is then investigated, by showing to what extent quantum Markovianity can be linked to a description of the open-system dynamics by means of the composition of one-step TTs only. On the other hand, we introduce the set of stochastic TT transformations associated with local measurements on the open system at different times and conditioned on the measurement outcomes. The use of the TT formalism accounts for different kinds of memory effects in the multi-time statistics and allows us to compare them on a similar footing with the memory effects present in non-monitored non-Markovian dynamics, as we illustrate on a spin-boson case study.

DOI
10.1088/2058-9565/ac4422

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Abstract The non-Markovianity of an arbitrary open quantum system is analyzed in reference to the multi-time statistics given by its monitoring at discrete times. On the one hand, we exploit the hierarchy of inhomogeneous transfer tensors (TTs), which provides us with relevant information about the role of correlations between the system and the environment in the dynamics. The connection between the TT hierarchy and the CP-divisibility property is then investigated, by showing to what extent quantum Markovianity can be linked to a description of the open-system dynamics by means of the composition of one-step TTs only. On the other hand, we introduce the set of stochastic TT transformations associated with local measurements on the open system at different times and conditioned on the measurement outcomes. The use of the TT formalism accounts for different kinds of memory effects in the multi-time statistics and allows us to compare them on a similar footing with the memory effects present in non-monitored non-Markovian dynamics, as we illustrate on a spin-boson case study.
Efficient simulations of the dynamics of open systems is of wide importance for quantum science and technology. Here, we introduce a generalization of the transfer-tensor, or discrete-time memory kernel, formalism to multitime measurement scenarios. The transfer-tensor method sets out to compute the state of an open few-body quantum system at long times, given that only short-time system trajectories are available. Here, we show that the transfer-tensor method can be extended to processes which include multiple interrogations (e.g., measurements) of the open system dynamics as it evolves, allowing us to propagate high-order short-time correlation functions to later times, without further recourse to the underlying system-environment evolution. Our approach exploits the process-tensor description of open quantum processes to represent and propagate the dynamics in terms of an object from which any multitime correlation can be extracted. As an illustration of the utility of the method, we study the buildup of system-environment correlations in the paradigmatic spin-boson model and compute steady-state emission spectra, taking fully into account system-environment correlations present in the steady state.
The transfer tensor method is a versatile tool for analyzing and propagating general open quantum systems. It captures in a compact manner all memory effects in a non-Markovian system through a straightforward transformation of a set of dynamical maps. Transfer tensors provide the exact convolutional propagator associated with a given time discretization over the past evolution of an open quantum system. Here we show that, for any finite time discretization, the memory kernel of the Nakajima Zwanzig equation deviates from the exact transfer tensors, although both converge in the continuous-time limit, as expected. We examine this behaviour in the context of an analytically solvable model: a two level atom resonant with a lossy cavity in the Jaynes Cummings limit. The atomic dynamics separate into two decoupled degrees of freedom -- the coherence and the population inversion. We derive exact expressions for the dynamical map, the transfer tensors and the memory kernel governing the coherence, and we relate them to their counterparts for the population inversion. As a function of the ratio between the cavity loss rate and the atom-cavity coupling strength, we identify regions of enhanced non-Markovianity in which the system can be described as fully Markovian for certain time-step choices.
In the present Thesis we study the behavior of multi-time correlation functions and of thermodynamical quantities such as heat in open quantum systems undergoing an evolution generally affected by the presence of memory effects, i.e. non-Markovian. In the last decade, a large part of the scientific community in this field has dedicated its efforts to the understanding, precise definition and quantification of non-Markovianity in the quantum realm and now we have at our disposal several benchmark results and a plethora of different estimators that allow to determine the degree of non-Markovianity of a given dynamics. It comes therefore natural to investigate how other different dynamical quantities relate to such estimators also in order to understand the physical implications of memory effects on the statistics of observable quantities. In the first part of this work, a quantitative test of the violation of the so-called quantum regression theorem in presence of a non-Markovian dynamical regime is investigated. The quantum regression theorem represents a procedure that, whenever valid, allows to reconstruct two-time correlation functions of system's operators from the sole knowledge of the dynamics of mean values. It is worth stressing that two-time correlation functions are necessary in order to fully characterize the statistical properties of a quantum system, since they are able to catch aspects of the dynamics, such as fluorescence spectrum, in general not accessible looking at mean values. Despite their relevance however, obtaining two-time correlation functions often represents a formidable task, since the knowledge of the full "system+environment" dynamics is required, a generally too demanding request in the context of open quantum systems theory. The quantum regression theorem represents in this regard the easiest route to determine two-time correlation functions, this highlighting its importance. In this work we show that, in a pure-dephasing spin-boson model, the quantum regression theorem represents a stronger condition than non-Markovianity, in the sense that any presence of memory effects in the reduced dynamics inevitably results in violations to the former. These results have been published in [G.Guarnieri, A. Smirne, B. Vacchini, Phys. Rev. A 90, 022110 (2014)]. The second part of the Thesis is devoted to the characterization of heat ow at the microscopic level in open quantum systems, both finite and infinite dimensional. In particular we begin by studying the time behavior of its mean value in a non-Markovian dynamical regime, showing that, at variance with what happens in the Born-Markov semigroup limiting case, heat can backflow from the environment to the system. After providing a condition for the occurrence of such phenomenon and a measure for its amount for a given dynamics, the relationship with suitable non-Markovianity estimators is sought in two paradigmatic models, namely the spin-boson and the quantum brownian motion. The results, collected in [ G. Guarnieri, C. Uchiyama, B. Vacchini, Phys. Rev. A 93, 012118 (2016); G. Guarnieri, J. Nokkala, R. Schmidt, S. Maniscalco, B. Vacchini, Phys. Rev. A 94, 062101 (2016)], on the one hand allow for the identification of parameter-regions where the heat backflow is absent or maximum. On the other hand they show that the occurrence of heat backflow represents a stricter condition than non-Markovianity, in the sense that non-Markovianity allows for the observation of heat flowing back from the environment to the system and, vice versa, a Markovian dynamics prevents its occurrence. This Thesis concludes with the formulation of a new family of lower bounds to the mean dissipated heat in an environmental-assisted erasure-protocol scenario where Landauer's principle applies. As originally conceived for classical systems, this principle states that every irreversible erasure of information stored in a system inevitably carries along an amount of heat dissipated into the environment which is expended to perform the action. Within the framework recently put forward in [D. Reeb, M. M. Wolf, New J. Phys. 16, 103011 (2014)], which guarantees the validity of Landauer's principle in an open quantum systems scenario, we provide an asymptotically tight family of lower bounds to the dissipated heat which are also valid in the non-equilibrium setting. This construction is applied to an open system consisting of a three-level V-system, in which one transition is externally pumped by a laser field while the other is coupled through an XX-interaction to an environment consisting of a spin chain. Beside calculating all these quantities, an exact solution for the dynamics of such system is also provided. These results are collected in [G. Guarnieri, S. Campbell, J. Goold, S. Pigeon, M. Paternostro, B. Vacchini, in preparation].
ABSTRACT: We use the divisibility approach to describe non-Markovian dynamics (memory effects) in open quantum systems coupled to an environment (reservoir). Specifically, sufficient and necessary criteria were incorporated in the energy domain that play a relevant role in dynamics of the system. In this case, we adopt the Feshbach partition in the space of (Hilbert-Liouville). On the other hand, to investigate both Markovianity and non-Markovianity, we study the divisibility of the Wigner function propagator. For this, within the framework of path integrals, we carry out an analysis of non-classical paths in phase space. Furthermore, we have used tools of topology to propose theorems intimately related to measures of non-Markovianity that are experementally accessible.
In the current era of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices, research on the theory of open system dynamics has a crucial role to play. In particular, understanding and quantifying memory effects in quantum systems is critical to gain a better handle on the effects of noise in quantum devices. The main focus of this review is to address the fundamental question of defining and characterizing such memory effects—broadly referred to as quantum non-Markovianity—utilizing various approaches. We first discuss the two-time-parameter maps approach to open system dynamics and review the various notions of quantum non-Markovianity that arise in this paradigm. We then discuss an alternate approach to quantum stochastic processes based on the quantum combs framework, which accounts for multi-time correlations. We discuss the interconnections and differences between these two paradigms and conclude with a discussion on the necessary and sufficient conditions for quantum non-Markovianity.
Accessing the physical mechanisms behind non-Markovian phenomena in open quantum dynamics requires the study of the statistical properties of the joint system-environment dynamics. This is impossible at the level of the reduced dynamics of the open system alone as the latter is obtained by suitably eliminating the environment. The task is instead made possible by considering multi-time correlation functions involving observables of the open system, only: the open system-environment interactions turn them into global ones thus building up correlations between the two systems. Multi-time correlations form the basis of both the theory of quantum stochastic processes and of the Alicki-Lindblad-Fannes dynamical entropy (ALF entropy for short). This latter quantity provides for quantum systems a measure of the dynamical entropy production as the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy does for classical systems. In the case of a collisional model whereby the dissipative dynamics of a finite-level system is obtained by its coupling to an infinite classical spin chain, the ALF entropy can be explicitly computed. It turns out to depend on the parameters characterizing the statistical properties of the environment and can be related to the activation and super-activation of memory effects in the open quantum system.