Concepts of quantum non-Markovianity: a hierarchy

Markovian approximation is a widely-employed idea in descriptions of the dynamics of open quantum systems (OQSs). Although it is usually claimed to be a concept inspired by classical Markovianity, the term quantum Markovianity is used inconsistently and often unrigorously in the literature. In this report we compare the descriptions of classical stochastic processes and quantum stochastic processes (as arising in OQSs), and show that there are inherent differences that lead to the non-trivial problem of characterizing quantum non-Markovianity. Rather than proposing a single definition of quantum Markovianity, we study a host of Markov-related concepts in the quantum regime. Some of these concepts have long been used in quantum theory, such as quantum white noise, factorization approximation, divisibility, Lindblad master equation, etc.. Others are first proposed in this report, including those we call past-future independence, no (quantum) information backflow, and composability. All of these concepts are defined under a unified framework, which allows us to rigorously build hierarchy relations among them. With various examples, we argue that the current most often used definitions of quantum Markovianity in the literature do not fully capture the memoryless property of OQSs. In fact, quantum non-Markovianity is highly context-dependent. The results in this report, summarized as a hierarchy figure, bring clarity to the nature of quantum non-Markovianity.Comment: Clarifications and references added; discussion of the related classical hierarchy significantly improved. To appear in Physics Report

On the dynamics of initially correlated open quantum systems: theory and applications

We show that the dynamics of any open quantum system that is initially correlated with its environment can be described by a set of (or less) completely positive maps, where d is the dimension of the system. Only one such map is required for the special case of no initial correlations. The same maps describe the dynamics of any system-environment state obtained from the initial state by a local operation on the system. The reduction of the system dynamics to a set of completely positive maps allows known numerical and analytic tools for uncorrelated initial states to be applied to the general case of initially correlated states, which we exemplify by solving the qubit dephasing model for such states, and provides a natural approach to quantum Markovianity for this case. We show that this set of completely positive maps can be experimentally characterised using only local operations on the system, via a generalisation of noise spectroscopy protocols. As further applications, we first consider the problem of retrodicting the dynamics of an open quantum system which is in an arbitrary state when it becomes accessible to the experimenter, and explore the conditions under which retrodiction is possible. We also introduce a related one-sided or limited-access tomography protocol for determining an arbitrary bipartite state, evolving under a sufficiently rich Hamiltonian, via local operations and measurements on just one component. We simulate this protocol for a physical model of particular relevance to nitrogen-vacancy centres, and in particular show how to reconstruct the density matrix of a set of three qubits, interacting via dipolar coupling and in the presence of local magnetic fields, by measuring and controlling only one of them.Comment: 19 pages. Comments welcom

Extracting dynamical equations from experimental data is NP-hard

The behavior of any physical system is governed by its underlying dynamical equations. Much of physics is concerned with discovering these dynamical equations and understanding their consequences. In this work, we show that, remarkably, identifying the underlying dynamical equation from any amount of experimental data, however precise, is a provably computationally hard problem (it is NP-hard), both for classical and quantum mechanical systems. As a by-product of this work, we give complexity-theoretic answers to both the quantum and classical embedding problems, two long-standing open problems in mathematics (the classical problem, in particular, dating back over 70 years).Comment: For mathematical details, see arXiv:0908.2128[math-ph]. v2: final version, accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

Open Quantum Dynamics: Complete Positivity and Entanglement

We review the standard treatment of open quantum systems in relation to quantum entanglement, analyzing, in particular, the behaviour of bipartite systems immersed in a same environment. We first focus upon the notion of complete positivity, a physically motivated algebraic constraint on the quantum dynamics, in relation to quantum entanglement, i.e. the existence of statistical correlations which can not be accounted for by classical probability. We then study the entanglement power of heat baths versus their decohering properties, a topic of increasing importance in the framework of the fast developing fields of quantum information, communication and computation. The presentation is self contained and, through several examples, it offers a detailed survey of the physics and of the most relevant and used techniques relative to both quantum open system dynamics and quantum entanglement.Comment: LaTex, 77 page

Quantum Markov Channels for Qubits

We examine stochastic maps in the context of quantum optics. Making use of the master equation, the damping basis, and the Bloch picture we calculate a non-unital, completely positive, trace-preserving map with unequal damping eigenvalues. This results in what we call the squeezed vacuum channel. A geometrical picture of the effect of stochastic noise on the set of pure state qubit density operators is provided. Finally, we study the capacity of the squeezed vacuum channel to transmit quantum information and to distribute EPR states.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Response functions as quantifiers of non-Markovianity

Quantum non-Markovianity is crucially related to the study of dynamical maps, which are usually derived for initially factorized system-bath states. We here demonstrate that linear response theory also provides a way to derive dynamical maps, but for initially correlated (and in general entangled) states. Importantly, these maps are always time-translational invariant and allow for a much simpler quantification of non-Markovianity compared to previous approaches. We apply our theory to the Caldeira-Leggett model, for which our quantifier is valid beyond linear response and can be expressed analytically. We find that a classical Brownian particle coupled to an Ohmic bath can already exhibit non-Markovian behaviour, a phenomenon related to the initial state preparation procedure. Furthermore, for a peaked spectral density we demonstrate that there is no monotonic relation between our quantifier and the system-bath coupling strength, the sharpness of the peak or the resonance frequency in the bath.Comment: Updated version with additional information. 5 + 5 pages incl. 2 figures. Comments are welcom