Evolution of Open Quantum Systems: Time Scales, Stochastic and Continuous Processes

Abstract

The study of the physical properties of open quantum systems is at the heart of many investigations, which aim to describe their dynamical evolution on theoretical ground and through physical realizations. Here, we develop a presentation of different aspects, which characterize these systems and confront different physical situations that can be realized leading to systems, which experience Markovian, non-Markovian, divisible or non-divisible interactions with the environments to which they are dynamically coupled. We aim to show how different approaches describe the evolution of quantum systems subject to different types of interactions with their environments.

Quanta 2021; 10: 42–54.