Note: On the memory kernel and the reduced system propagator

Abstract: We relate the memory kernel in the Nakajima-Zwanzig-Mori time-convolution approach to the reduced system propagator which is often used to obtain the kernel in the Tokuyama-Mori time-convolutionless approach. The connection provides a robust and simple formalism to compute the memory kernel for a generalized system-bath model circumventing the need to compute high order system-bath observables. We illustrate this for a model system with electron-electron and electron-phonon couplings, driven away from equilibrium.