QUANTUM DYNAMICS OF FINITE LEVEL SYSTEMS – MARKOVIANITY CRITERIA

We analyze the dynamics of a finite level quantum system using local in time master equation. Markovian dynamics is characterized in terms of divisible dynamical map. Moreover we provide a family of criteria which can distinguish Markovian and non-Markovian quantum evolution. They are based on a simple observation that Markovian dynamics implies monotonic behavior of several well known quantities like distinguishability of states, fidelity and relative entropy. Violation of any of these criteria implies that the corresponding dynamics is non-Markovian.