Non-Markovian thermalization for a few qubit system

W. F. Magalhães, Carlos Octavio A. Ribeiro Neto, Bertúlio de Lima Bernardo

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.

Li-Ping Han, Jian Zou, Hai Li +1 more

Jun Ying Sun, Yong-Nan Sun, Chuan‐Feng Li +3 more

Maria Popovic, Bassano Vacchini, Steve Campbell

We study the relationship between a (non-)Markovian evolution and the entropy production rate. We consider a system qubit in contact with a thermal bath and in addition the system is strongly coupled to an ancillary qubit. We examine the steady state properties finding that the coupling leads to effective temperatures emerging in the composite system, and show that this is related to the creation of correlations between the qubits. By establishing the conditions under which the system reaches thermal equilibrium with the bath despite undergoing a non-Markovian evolution, we examine the entropy production rate, showing that its transient negativity is a sufficient sign of non-Markovianity.

Maria Popovic, Bassano Vacchini, Steve Campbell

We study the relationship between (non-)Markovian evolutions, established correlations, and the entropy production rate. We consider a system qubit in contact with a thermal bath and in addition the system is strongly coupled to an ancillary qubit. We examine the steady-state properties finding that the coupling leads to effective temperatures emerging in the composite system, and show that this is related to the creation of correlations between the qubits. By establishing the conditions under which the system reaches thermal equilibrium with the bath despite undergoing a non-Markovian evolution, we examine the entropy production rate, showing that its transient negativity is a sufficient sign of non-Markovianity.

Kurt A. Jacobs, Maxim Olshanii, Vanja Dunjko