Non-Markovian dynamical maps and spin relaxation

Xiang Hao, Xuefen Xu, Shiqun Zhu

Using a measure for the divisibility of a dynamical map, we study the non-Markovian character of a quantum evolution of a spin-S system, which is in an external field and weakly coupled to a bosonic bath with a certain temperature. The finite-temperature dynamics of the open system is obtained by the time-convolutionless master equation in the secular approximation. Besides the influence of the environmental spectral density function, the external field and low temperatures can affect the quantum non-Markovianity. It is found out that the non-Markovian feature of a dynamical map of a high-dimensional spin system is noticeable in contrast to that of a low-dimension spin system.

Dragomir Davidovic

Perturbative van Kampen cumulant expansions of time-local generators of open quantum systems generically diverge at long times, but the reduced dynamics is regular. We show that the divergent cumulants nevertheless contain information sufficient to reconstruct the nonperturbative dynamical map. The map reveals that the divergence does not signal a breakdown of the reduced dynamics, but the approach to isolated times at which it becomes noninvertible. Singular time-local generators thus arise naturally from microscopic open-system Hamiltonians, without requiring special Lindblad-type constructions. For the weak-coupling spin--boson model, the reconstructed non-Markovian dynamics takes the explicit disentangled form \begin{equation*} Φ=Φ_{\mathrm{GAD}}+Φ_{\mathrm{NS}}+Φ_{\mathrm{Khal}}, \end{equation*} separating generalized amplitude damping, exponentially damped nonsecular coherence mixing, and a projective, phase-selective Khalfin map. The onset of recurrent noninvertibility is the reduced-dynamical-map manifestation of the Khalfin transition from exponential to algebraic relaxation. Although the coherences acquire algebraic Khalfin tails, the distinguishability of quantum superposition states remains governed by an exponential decay law after the Khalfin transition. Comparison with numerically exact TEMPO dynamics validates the disentanglement and shows that apparently complex non-Markovian dynamics can resolve into a small number of physically transparent and distinct dynamical processes.

Dariusz Chruściński

Gianpaolo Torre

Samyadeb Bhattacharya, Avijit Misra, Chiranjib Mukhopadhyay +1 more

An exact canonical master equation of the Lindblad form is derived for a central spin interacting uniformly with a sea of completely unpolarized spins. The Kraus operators for the dynamical map are also derived. The non-Markovianity of the dynamics in terms of the divisibility breaking of the dynamical map and the increase of the trace distance fidelity between quantum states is shown. Moreover, it is observed that the irreversible entropy production rate is always negative (for a fixed initial state) whenever the dynamics exhibits non-Markovian behavior. In continuation with the study of witnessing non-Markovianity, it is shown that the positive rate of change of the purity of the central qubit is a faithful indicator of the non-Markovian information backflow. Given the experimental feasibility of measuring the purity of a quantum state, a possibility of experimental demonstration of non-Markovianity and the negative irreversible entropy production rate is addressed. This gives the present work considerable practical importance for detecting the non-Markovianity and the negative irreversible entropy production rate.

Z. Kanokov