Dissipative quantum dynamics

Despite our best efforts, no quantum system is fully isolated from its environment. Interactions with this environment enable the exchange of energy and information, adding unwanted noise to the system and destroying quantum correlations—this is known as dissipation. As a result, dissipation is often seen as a roadblock toward the preparation of highly-coherent quantum states and the stability of out-of-equilibrium phenomena. On the other hand, it offers an entirely distinct class of quantum dynamics that does not need to respect unitarity. This suggests the possibility of harnessing dissipation as a quantum resource.

• What are the classes of quantum states that can be prepared with different forms of dissipation?
• How does this classification change when dissipation is combined with the system’s intrinsic unitary dynamics?