Memory effects in quantum dynamics modelled by quantum renewal processes

TL;DR

This paper models non-Markovian quantum dynamics using quantum renewal processes, analyzing how various process features influence memory effects and trace distance revivals in open quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological approach to characterize non-Markovianity in quantum systems through quantum renewal processes, exploring the impact of process constituents on dynamics.

Findings

Non-Markovianity depends on jump types and waiting time distributions.

Trace distance revivals are affected by process parameters.

The model captures diverse non-Markovian behaviors.

Abstract

Simple, controllable models play an important role to learn how to manipulate and control quantum resources. We focus here on quantum non-Markovianity and model the evolution of open quantum systems by quantum renewal processes. This class of quantum dynamics provides us with a phenomenological approach to characterise dynamics with a variety of non-Markovian behaviours, here described in terms of the trace distance between two reduced states. By adopting a trajectory picture for the open quantum system evolution, we analyse how non-Markovianity is influenced by the constituents defining the quantum renewal process, namely the time-continuous part of the dynamics, the type of jumps and the waiting time distributions. We focus not only on the mere value of the non-Markovianity measure, but also on how different features of the trace distance evolution are altered, including times and number of revivals.