Reduced dynamical maps in the presence of initial correlations (1605.04159v1)

Abstract: We introduce a general framework for the construction of completely positive dynamical evolutions in the presence of system-environment initial correlations. The construction relies upon commutativity of the compatibility domain obtained by considering the marginals with respect to the environmental degrees of freedom of the considered class of correlated states. Our approach allows to consider states whose discord is not necessarily zero and explicitly show the non-uniqueness of the completely positive extensions of the obtained dynamical map outside the compatibility domain. The relevance of such maps for the treatment of open quantum system dynamics is discussed and connection to previous literature is critically assessed.