Sufficient conditions for positivity of non-Markovian master equations with Hermitian generators

Abstract

We use basic physical motivations to develop sufficient conditions for positive semidefiniteness of the reduced density matrix for generalized non-Markovian integrodifferential Lindblad–Kossakowski master equations with Hermitian generators. We show that it is sufficient for the memory function to be the Fourier transform of a real positive symmetric frequency density function with certain properties. These requirements are physically motivated, and are more general and more easily checked than previously stated sufficient conditions. We also explore the decoherence dynamics numerically for some simple models using the Hadamard representation of the propagator. We show that the sufficient conditions are not necessary conditions. We also show that models exist in which the long time limit is in part determined by non-Markovian effects.