Experimental investigation of the effect of classical noise on quantum non-Markovian dynamics

TL;DR

This paper experimentally explores how different types of classical noise influence the non-Markovian behavior of a quantum two-level system, revealing distinctions between classical and quantum non-Markovianity.

Contribution

It demonstrates an experimental setup to control and analyze the impact of various classical noises on quantum non-Markovian dynamics using photonic polarization.

Findings

Classical noise can induce non-Markovian effects in quantum systems.

Different types of classical noise (Gaussian and non-Gaussian) have distinct impacts.

Quantum non-Markovianity differs fundamentally from classical non-Markovian processes.

Abstract

We provide an experimental study of the relationship between the action of different classical noises on the dephasing dynamics of a two-level system and the non-Markovianity of the quantum dynamics. The two-level system is encoded in the photonic polarization degrees of freedom and the action of the noise is obtained via a spatial light modulator, thus allowing for an easy engineering of different random environments. The quantum non-Markovianity of the dynamics driven by classical Markovian and non-Markovian noise, both Gaussian and non-Gaussian, is studied by means of the trace distance. Our study clearly shows the different nature of the notion of non-Markovian classical process and non-Markovian quantum dynamics.