Non-Markovian quantum dynamics in physical systems: description and control

All realistic quantum systems interact with their environments and thereby must be considered as open quantum systems. When a quantum system is strongly coupled to its environment, the so-called Markov property, which states that the future state of the system depends only on its current state and not on its past states, breaks down.

The study of non-Markovian quantum dynamics is fundamental to our understanding of environment-induced decoherence, relaxation and dissipation in many-body systems and to ultimately control environmental influence so as to preserve quantum properties of open systems and/or enhance quantum coherence and entanglement in practical applications.

This focus collection aims to bring together recent advances in the characterization, detection and control of non-Markovian quantum dynamics of open systems across condensed, soft and active matter physics, quantum optics, quantum information, quantum thermodynamics and quantum measurement and control. We welcome methodological developments to identify and quantify non-Markovianity, including machine learning and quantum algorithms for simulating non-Markovian quantum many-body systems and experimental works addressing the detection, quantification, and control of non-Markovian effects in quantum measurement and metrology.