Master equation for open quantum systems: Zwanzig-Nakajima projection technique and the intrinsic bath dynamics

Abstract: The non-Markovian master equation for open quantum systems is obtained by generalization of the ordinary Zwanzig-Nakajima (ZN) projection technique. To this end, a coupled chain of equations for the reduced density matrices of the bath $\varrho_{B}(t)$ and the system $\varrho_{S}(t)$ are written down. A formal solution of the equation for $\varrho_{B}(t)$, having been inserted in the equation for the reduced density matrix of the system, in the 2-nd approximation in interaction yields a very specific extra term in the generalized master equation. This term, being nonlinear in $\varrho_{S}(t)$, is related to the intrinsic bath dynamics and vanishes in the Markovian limit. To verify the consistence and robustness of our approach, we applied the generalized ZN projection scheme to a simple dephasing model. It is shown that consideration of the lowest order in interaction is insufficient to describe time evolution of the system coherence adequately. We explain this fact by analyzing the exact and approximate forms of $\varrho_{B}(t)$ and give some hints how to take the dynamic correlations (which originate from the spin-bath coupling) into account.