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arXiv:2610.01814

Collision models: Markovian and Non-Markovian impurity models

Jacob Werner

quant-phSubmitted Oct 1, 2026• Announced Oct 2, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Collision models provide a flexible framework for studying open quantum systems and introducing non-Markovianity. We present a novel class of collision models, which we term Markovian impurity models, motivated by physical scenarios in which information backflow is periodically blocked. Using the Breuer-Laine-Piilo (BLP) measure of non-Markovianity, we show that if a $p$-impurity model is non-Markovian, then the corresponding $(p+1)$-impurity model is also non-Markovian, implying the existence of a critical $p$ at which the process transitions from Markovian to non-Markovian. Numerical simulations are used to investigate how this critical parameter depends on the system-ancilla and ancilla-ancilla interaction strengths. We find that, altough exceptions exist, increasing either interaction strength generally lowers the critical $p$, while sufficiently weak ancilla-ancilla interactions lead to a regime in which the dynamics remain Markovian even in the absence of impurities. Finally, we briefly introduce the complementary non-Markovian impurity model.

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Collision models provide a flexible framework for studying open quantum systems and introducing non-Markovianity. We present a novel class of collision models, which we term Markovian impurity models, motivated by physical scenarios in which information backflow is periodically blocked. Using the Breuer-Laine-Piilo (BLP) measure of non-Markovianity, we show that if a ppp-impurity model is non-Markovian, then the corresponding (p+1)(p+1)(p+1)-impurity model is also non-Markovian, implying the existence of a critical ppp at which the process transitions from Markovian to non-Markovian. Numerical simulations are used to investigate how this critical parameter depends on the system-ancilla and ancilla-ancilla interaction strengths. We find that, altough exceptions exist, increasing either interaction strength generally lowers the critical ppp, while sufficiently weak ancilla-ancilla interactions lead to a regime in which the dynamics remain Markovian even in the absence of impurities. Finally, we briefly introduce the complementary non-Markovian impurity model.
The concept of non-Markovianity in open quantum systems is traditionally associated with the existence of information backflows from the environment to the system. Meanwhile, the mechanisms through which such backflows emerge are still a subject of debate. In this work, we use collision models to study memory effects in the dynamics of a qubit system in contact with a thermal bath made up of few ancillas, in which system-ancilla and ancilla-ancilla interactions are considered. In the single-ancilla limit case, we show that the system-bath information flow exhibits an interesting mixture of chaotic and regular oscillatory behavior, which depends on the interaction probabilities. In parallel, our results clearly indicate that the information backflows decrease when new ancillas are added to the bath, which sheds light on the nature of the Markovian to non-Markovian transition.
Abstract Collision models (CMs) describe an open system interacting in sequence with elements of an environment, termed ancillas. They have been established as a useful tool for analyzing non-Markovian open quantum dynamics based on the ability to control the environmental memory through simple feedback mechanisms. In this work, we investigate how ancilla–ancilla (AA) entanglement can serve as a mechanism for controlling the non-Markovianity of an open system, focusing on an operational approach to generating correlations within the environment. To this end, we first demonstrate that the open dynamics of CMs with sequentially generated correlations between groups of ancillas can be mapped onto a composite CM, where the memory part of the environment is incorporated into an enlarged Markovian system. We then apply this framework to an all-qubit CM, and show that non-Markovian behavior emerges only when the next incoming pair of ancillas are entangled prior to colliding with the system. On the other hand, when system-ancilla collisions precede AA entanglement, we find the open dynamics to always be Markovian. Our findings highlight how certain qualitative features of inter-ancilla correlations can strongly influence the onset of system non-Markovianity.
We present a theoretical framework to tackle quantum non-Markovian dynamics based on a microscopic collision model (CM), where the bath consists of a large collection of initially uncorrelated ancillas. Unlike standard memoryless CMs, we endow the bath with memory by introducing interancillary collisions between next system-ancilla interactions. Our model interpolates between a fully Markovian dynamics and the continuous interaction of the system with a single ancilla, i.e., a strongly non-Markovian process. We show that in the continuous limit one can derive a general master equation, which, while keeping such features, is guaranteed to describe an unconditionally completely positive and trace-preserving dynamics. We apply our theory to an atom in a dissipative cavity for a Lorentzian spectral density of bath modes, a dynamics which can be exactly solved. The predicted evolution shows a significant improvement in approaching the exact solution with respect to two well-known memory-kernel master equations.
Quantum non-Markovianity represents memory during system dynamics, which is typically weakened by temperature. We study here the effects of environmental temperature on the non-Markovianity of an open quantum system by virtue of collision models. The environment is simulated by a chain of ancillary qubits that are prepared in thermal states with a finite temperature TTT. Two distinct non-Markovian mechanisms are considered via two types of collision models, one where the system SSS consecutively interacts with ancillas and a second where SSS collides only with an intermediate system ${S}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, which in turn interacts with the ancillas. We show that in both models the relation between non-Markovianity and temperature is nonmonotonic. In particular, revivals of non-Markovianity may occur as temperature increases. We find that the physical reason behind this behavior can be revealed by examining a peculiar system-environment coherence exchange, leading to ancillary qubit coherence larger than system coherence, which triggers information backflow from the environment to the system. These results provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the counterintuitive phenomenon of temperature-enhanced quantum memory effects.
We investigate a two-qubit quantum system in contact with an environment modeled by a microscopic collision model with added ancilla-ancilla collisions in the non-Markovian regime. Two schemes of the two-qubit collision model with carried-forward correlations are introduced. In one scheme, a single stream of ancillae interacts with only one of the qubits of the two-qubit system; in the other, both the qubits interact with two independent sequences of ancillae, which could be at the same or different temperatures. The system's non-Markovian evolution is examined using the trace distance measure, and the non-classicality of the system is studied using the Wigner function, non-classical volume, and concurrence. Also, interesting steady-state behavior is observed when both the independent ancillae are kept at the same temperature.
We investigate the irreversible entropy production of a qubit in contact with an environment modelled by a microscopic collision model in both Markovian and non-Markovian regimes. Our main goal is to contribute to the discussions on the relationship between non-Markovian dynamics and negative entropy production rates. We employ two different types of collision models that do or do not keep the correlations established between the system and the incoming environmental particle, while both of them pertain to their non-Markovian nature through information backflow from the environment to the system. We observe that as the former model, where the correlations between the system and environment are preserved, gives rise to negative entropy production rates in the transient dynamics, the latter one always maintains positive rates, even though the convergence to the steady-state value is slower as compared to the corresponding Markovian dynamics. Our results suggest that the mechanism underpinning the negative entropy production rates is not solely non-Markovianity through information backflow, but rather the contribution to it through established system-environment correlations.