2017/03/31 by Hong-Bin Chen, Hongbin Chen, Clemens Gneiting +4
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Hamiltonian (control theory) #Hamiltonian system #Impossibility #Mathematical optimization #Mathematics #Open quantum system #Open system (computing) #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum dynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum system #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Statistical physics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.120.030403
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 030403 (2018) · Main article: 6 pages, 2 figures; Supplementary: 5 pages, 2 figures; Accepted by Phys. Rev. Lett., in press (2018)
openalex publication_date 2018/01/19 · arxiv created 2018/01/20 · arxiv updated 2018/01/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The incoherent dynamical properties of open quantum systems are generically attributed to an ongoing correlation between the system and its environment. Here, we propose a novel way to assess the nature of these system-environment correlations by examining the system dynamics alone. Our approach is based on the possibility or impossibility to simulate open-system dynamics with Hamiltonian ensembles. As we show, such (im)possibility to simulate is closely linked to the system-environment correlations. We thus define the nonclassicality of open-system dynamics in terms of the nonexistence of a Hamiltonian-ensemble simulation. This classifies any nonunital open-system dynamics as nonclassical. We give examples for open-system dynamics that are unital and classical, as well as unital and nonclassical.