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arXiv:2106.07697 · Entropy

Memory Effects in Quantum Dynamics Modelled by Quantum Renewal Processes

Nina Megier, Manuel Ponzi, Andrea Smirne, Bassano Vacchini

Published Jul 16, 2021• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Simple, controllable models play an important role in learning how to manipulate and control quantum resources. We focus here on quantum non-Markovianity and model the evolution of open quantum systems by quantum renewal processes. This class of quantum dynamics provides us with a phenomenological approach to characterise dynamics with a variety of non-Markovian behaviours, here described in terms of the trace distance between two reduced states. By adopting a trajectory picture for the open quantum system evolution, we analyse how non-Markovianity is influenced by the constituents defining the quantum renewal process, namely the time-continuous part of the dynamics, the type of jumps and the waiting time distributions. We focus not only on the mere value of the non-Markovianity measure, but also on how different features of the trace distance evolution are altered, including times and number of revivals.

DOI
10.3390/e23070905

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Simple, controllable models play an important role in learning how to manipulate and control quantum resources. We focus here on quantum non-Markovianity and model the evolution of open quantum systems by quantum renewal processes. This class of quantum dynamics provides us with a phenomenological approach to characterise dynamics with a variety of non-Markovian behaviours, here described in terms of the trace distance between two reduced states. By adopting a trajectory picture for the open quantum system evolution, we analyse how non-Markovianity is influenced by the constituents defining the quantum renewal process, namely the time-continuous part of the dynamics, the type of jumps and the waiting time distributions. We focus not only on the mere value of the non-Markovianity measure, but also on how different features of the trace distance evolution are altered, including times and number of revivals.
The reduced description of the quantum dynamic processes in the condensed phase environment leads to the equation of motion with a memory kernel. Such a memory effect, termed non-Markovianity, presents more complex dynamics compared to its memoryless or Markovian counterpart, and many chemical systems have been demonstrated through numerical simulations to exhibit non-Markovian quantum dynamics. Explicitly how the memory impacts the dynamic process remains largely unexplored. In this work, we focus on ways to separate the non-Markovian contributions from the dynamics and study the non-Markovian effects. Specifically, we developed a rigorous procedure for mapping the exact non-Markovian quantum propagator to the Lindblad form. Consequently, it allows us to extract the negative decay rate from the Lindbladian that is the signature of the non-Markovianity. By including or excluding the negative rate in the time evolution, we can decisively pinpoint the influence of non-Markovianity on the system's properties such as coherence, entanglement, and equilibrium state distribution. The understanding of such memory effects on the dynamic process suggests the possibility of leveraging non-Markovianity for quantum control.
Recently, a large class of quantum non-Markovian piecewise dynamics for an open quantum system obeying closed evolution equations has been introduced [1]. These dynamics have been defined in terms of a waiting-time distribution between quantum jumps, along with quantum maps describing the effect of jumps and the system evolution between them. Here, we present a quantum collision model with memory, whose reduced dynamics in the continuous-time limit reproduces the above class of non-Markovian piecewise dynamics, thus providing an explicit microscopic realization.
This Thesis discusses the phenomenology of the dynamics of open quantum systems marked by non-Markovian memory effects. Non-Markovian open quantum systems are the focal point of a flurry of recent research aiming to answer, e.g., the following questions: What is the characteristic trait of non-Markovian dynamical processes that discriminates it from forgetful Markovian dynamics? What is the microscopic origin of memory in quantum dynamics, and how can it be controlled? Does the existence of memory effects open new avenues and enable accomplishments that cannot be achieved with Markovian processes? These questions are addressed in the publications forming the core of this Thesis with case studies of both prototypical and more exotic models of open quantum systems. In the first part of the Thesis several ways of characterizing and quantifying non-Markovian phenomena are introduced. Their differences are then explored using a driven, dissipative qubit model. The second part of the Thesis focuses on the dynamics of a purely dephasing qubit model, which is used to unveil the origin of non-Markovianity for a wide class of dynamical models. The emergence of memory is shown to be strongly intertwined with the structure of the spectral density function, as further demonstrated in a physical realization of the dephasing model using ultracold quantum gases. Finally, as an application of memory effects, it is shown that non- Markovian dynamical processes facilitate a novel phenomenon of timeinvariant discord, where the total quantum correlations of a system are frozen to their initial value. Non-Markovianity can also be exploited in the detection of phase transitions using quantum information probes, as shown using the physically interesting models of the Ising chain in a transverse field and a Coulomb chain undergoing a structural phase transition.
We investigate the conditions under which the trace distance between two different states of a given open system increases in time due to the interaction with an environment, therefore signaling non-Markovianity. We find that the finite-time difference in trace distance is bounded by two sharply defined quantities that are strictly linked to the occurrence of system-environment correlations created throughout their interaction and affecting the subsequent evolution of the system. This allows us to shed light on the origin of non-Markovian behaviors in quantum dynamics. We best illustrate our findings by tackling two physically relevant examples: a non-Markovian dephasing mechanism that has been the focus of a recent experimental endeavor and the open-system dynamics experienced by a spin connected to a finite-size quantum spin chain.
The non-Markovianity of open quantum system dynamics is often associated with the bidirectional interchange of information between the system and its environment, and it is thought to be a resource for various quantum information tasks. We have investigated the non-Markovianity of the dynamics of a two-state system driven by continuous time random walk-type noise, which can be Markovian or non-Markovian depending on its residence time distribution parameters. Exact analytical expressions for the distinguishability as well as the trace distance and entropy-based non-Markovianity measures are obtained and used to investigate the interplay between the non-Markovianity of the noise and that of dynamics. Our results show that, in many cases, the dynamics are also non-Markovian when the noise is non-Markovian. However, it is possible for Markovian noise to cause non-Markovian dynamics and for non-Markovian noise to cause Markovian dynamics but only for certain parameter values.
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.