The role of environmental correlations in the non-Markovian dynamics of a spin system

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework to analyze how environmental quantum correlations influence the non-Markovian dynamics of a quantum spin chain, highlighting the impact of entanglement in the environment on system evolution.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to study the effects of environmental quantum correlations on non-Markovian quantum dynamics, emphasizing the role of entanglement in the environment.

Findings

Entanglement in the environment enhances non-Markovian effects.

Environmental quantum correlations lead to unique structures in system metrics.

The framework is relevant for biological complex systems.

Abstract

We put forward a framework to study the dynamics of a chain of interacting quantum particles affected by individual or collective multi-mode environment, focussing on the role played by the environmental quantum correlations over the evolution of the chain. The presence of entanglement in the state of the environmental system magnifies the non-Markovian nature of the chain's dynamics, giving rise to structures in figures of merit such as entanglement and purity that are not observed under a separable multi-mode environment. Our analysis can be relevant to problems tackling the open-system dynamics of biological complexes of strong current interest.