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arXiv:2602.01794 · Physical Review A

Semidefinite programming for understanding limitations of Lindblad equations

Soumyadeep Sarma, Manas Kulkarni, Archak Purkayastha, Devashish Tupkary

quant-phcond-mat.mes-hallmath-phSubmitted Feb 2, 2026• Announced Feb 3, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Feb 2, 2026v2 · Jun 22, 2026
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Abstract

Lindbladian quantum master equations (LEs) are the most popular descriptions for quantum systems weakly coupled to baths. But, recent works have established that in many situations such Markovian descriptions are fundamentally limited: they cannot simultaneously capture populations and coherences even to the leading-order in system-bath couplings. This can cause violation of fundamental properties like thermalization and continuity equations associated with local conservation laws, even when such properties are expected in the actual setting. This begs the question: given a physical situation, how do we know if there exists an LE that describes it to a desired accuracy? Here we show that, for both equilibrium and non-equilibrium steady states (NESS), this question can be succinctly formulated as a semidefinite program (SDP), a convex optimization technique. If a solution to the SDP can be found to a desired accuracy, then an LE description is possible for the chosen setting. If not, no LE description is fundamentally attainable, showing that a consistent Markovian treatment is impossible even at weak system-bath coupling for that particular setting. Considering few qubit isotropic XXZ-type models coupled to multiple baths, we find that in most parameter regimes, LE description giving accurate populations and coherences to leading-order is unattainable, leading to rigorous no-go results. However, in some cases, LE description having correct populations but inaccurate coherences, and satisfying local conservation laws, is possible over some of the parameter regimes. Our work highlights the power of semidefinite programming in the analysis of physically consistent LEs, thereby, in understanding the limits of Markovian descriptions at weak system-bath couplings.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. A 114, 012423 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/jyck-mvlg
Comments
18 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

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Lindbladian quantum master equations (LEs) are the most popular descriptions for quantum systems weakly coupled to baths. But, recent works have established that in many situations such Markovian descriptions are fundamentally limited: they cannot simultaneously capture populations and coherences even to the leading-order in system-bath couplings. This can cause violation of fundamental properties like thermalization and continuity equations associated with local conservation laws, even when such properties are expected in the actual setting. This begs the question: given a physical situation, how do we know if there exists an LE that describes it to a desired accuracy? Here we show that, for both equilibrium and non-equilibrium steady states (NESS), this question can be succinctly formulated as a semidefinite program (SDP), a convex optimization technique. If a solution to the SDP can be found to a desired accuracy, then an LE description is possible for the chosen setting. If not, no LE description is fundamentally attainable, showing that a consistent Markovian treatment is impossible even at weak system-bath coupling for that particular setting. Considering few qubit isotropic XXZ-type models coupled to multiple baths, we find that in most parameter regimes, LE description giving accurate populations and coherences to leading-order is unattainable, leading to rigorous no-go results. However, in some cases, LE description having correct populations but inaccurate coherences, and satisfying local conservation laws, is possible over some of the parameter regimes. Our work highlights the power of semidefinite programming in the analysis of physically consistent LEs, thereby, in understanding the limits of Markovian descriptions at weak system-bath couplings.
We investigate the possibility of a Markovian quantum master equation (QME) that consistently describes a finite-dimensional system, a part of which is weakly coupled to a thermal bath. To preserve complete positivity and trace, such a QME must be of Lindblad form. For physical consistency, it should additionally preserve local conservation laws and be able to show thermalization. We search for Lindblad equations satisfying these additional criteria. First, we show that the microscopically derived Bloch-Redfield equation violates complete positivity unless in extremely special cases. We then prove that imposing complete positivity and demanding preservation of local conservation laws enforces the Lindblad operators and the lamb-shift Hamiltonian to be local, i.e., to be supported only on the part of the system directly coupled to the bath. We then cast the problem of finding local Lindblad QMEs which can show thermalization into a semidefinite program. We call this the thermalization optimization problem (TOP). For given system parameters and temperature, the solution of the TOP conclusively shows whether the desired type of QME is possible up to a given precision. Whenever possible, it also outputs a form for such a QME. For an XXZ chain of a few qubits, fixing a reasonably high precision, we find that such a QME is impossible over a considerably wide parameter regime when only the first qubit is coupled to the bath. Remarkably, we find that when the first two qubits are attached to the bath, such a QME becomes possible over much of the same parameter regime, including a wide range of temperatures.
It is very common in the literature to write a Markovian quantum master equation in Lindblad form to describe a system with multiple degrees of freedom and weakly connected to multiple thermal baths which can, in general, be at different temperatures and chemical potentials. However, the microscopically derived quantum master equation up to leading order in a system-bath coupling is of the so-called Redfield form, which is known to not preserve complete positivity in most cases. Additional approximations to the Redfield equation are required to obtain a Lindblad form. We lay down some fundamental requirements for any further approximations to the Redfield equation, which, if violated, leads to physical inconsistencies such as inaccuracies in the leading order populations and coherences in the energy eigenbasis, violation of thermalization, and violation of local conservation laws at the nonequilibrium steady state. We argue that one or more of these conditions will generically be violated in all the weak system-bath-coupling Lindblad descriptions existing in the literature to our knowledge. As an example, we study the recently derived universal Lindblad equation and use these conditions to show the violation of local conservation laws due to inaccurate coherences but accurate populations in the energy eigenbasis. Finally, we exemplify our analytical results numerically in an interacting open quantum spin system.
Away from equilibrium, the properties of open quantum systems depend on the details of their environment. A microscopic derivation of a master equation (ME) is therefore crucial. Of particular interest are Lindblad-type equations, not only because they provide the most general class of Markovian MEs, but also since they are the starting point for efficient quantum trajectory simulations. Lindblad-type MEs are commonly derived from the Born-Markov-Redfield equation via a rotating-wave approximation (RWA). However the RWA is valid only for ultraweak system-bath coupling and often fails to accurately describe nonequilibrium processes. Here we derive an alternative Lindbladian approximation to the Redfield equation, which does not rely on ultraweak system-bath coupling. Applying it to an extended Hubbard model coupled to Ohmic baths, we show that, especially away from equilibrium, it provides a good approximation in large parameter regimes where the RWA fails.
We put forth a new class of quantum master equations that correctly reproduce the asymptotic state of an open quantum system beyond the infinitesimally weak system-bath coupling limit. Our method is based on incorporating the knowledge of the reduced steady state into its dynamics. The correction not only steers the reduced system toward a correct steady state but also improves the accuracy of the dynamics, thereby refining the archetypal Born-Markov weak-coupling second-order master equations. In case of equilibrium, we use the exact mean-force Gibbs state to correct the Redfield quantum master equation. By benchmarking it with the exact solution of the damped harmonic oscillator, we show that our method also helps correct the long-standing issue of positivity violation, albeit without complete positivity. Our method of a canonically consistent quantum master equation opens a new perspective in the theory of open quantum systems leading to a reduced density matrix accurate beyond the commonly used Redfield and Lindblad equations, while retaining the same conceptual and numerical complexity.
A semidefinite program (SDP) is a particular kind of convex optimization problem with applications in operations research, combinatorial optimization, quantum information science, and beyond. In this work, we propose variational quantum algorithms for approximately solving SDPs. For one class of SDPs, we provide a rigorous analysis of their convergence to approximate locally optimal solutions, under the assumption that they are weakly constrained (i.e., N ≫ M , where N is the dimension of the input matrices and M is the number of constraints). We also provide algorithms for a more general class of SDPs that requires fewer assumptions. Finally, we numerically simulate our quantum algorithms for applications such as MaxCut, and the results of these simulations provide evidence that convergence still occurs in noisy settings.
The urgent need for reliable simulation tools to match the extreme accuracy needed to control tailored quantum devices highlights the importance of understanding open quantum systems and their modeling. To this end, we compare here the commonly used Redfield and Lindblad master equations against numerically exact results in the case of one and two resonant qubits transversely coupled at a single point to a Drude-cut ohmic bath. All the relevant parameters are varied over a broad range, which allows us to give detailed predictions about the validity and physically meaningful applicability of the weak-coupling approaches. We characterize the accuracy of the approximate approaches by comparing the maximum difference of their system evolution superoperators with numerically exact results. After optimizing the parameters of the approximate models to minimize the difference, we also explore if and to what extent the weak-coupling equations can be applied at least as phenomenological models. Optimization may lead to an accurate reproduction of experimental data, but yet our results are important to estimate the reliability of the extracted parameter values such as the bath temperature. Our findings set general guidelines for the range of validity of the usual Born-Markov master equations and indicate that they fail to accurately describe the physics in a surprisingly broad range of parameters, in particular, at low temperatures. Since quantum-technological devices operate there, their accurate modeling calls for a careful choice of methods.