Relaxation to equilibrium driven via indirect control in Markovian dynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an auxiliary two-level quantum system can be used to indirectly control the stationary states of a primary system undergoing Markovian dynamics, even without initial correlations.

Contribution

It provides a characterization of conditions under which indirect control of stationary states is achievable in Markovian quantum systems.

Findings

Indirect control is possible without initial correlations.

Control depends on specific dynamical parameters.

The study applies to systems with initial entanglement or no correlations.

Abstract

We characterize to what extent it is possible to modify the stationary states of a quantum dynamical semigroup, that describes the irreversible evolution of a two-level system, by means of an auxiliary two-level system. We consider systems that can be initially entangled or uncorrelated. We find that the indirect control of the stationary states is possible, even if there are not initial correlations, under suitable conditions on the dynamical parameters characterizing the evolution of the joint system.