Heat current and entropy production rate in local non-Markovian quantum dynamics of global Markovian evolution

Abstract: We examine the elements of the balance equation of entropy in open quantum evolutions and their response as we go from a Markovian to a non-Markovian situation. In particular, we look at the heat current and entropy production rate in the non-Markovian reduced evolution, as well as a Markovian limit of the same, experienced by one of two interacting systems immersed in a Markovian bath. The analysis naturally leads us to define a heat current deficit and an entropy production rate deficit, which are differences between the global and local versions of the corresponding quantities. The investigation leads, in certain cases, to a complementarity of the time-integrated heat current deficit and the relative entropy of entanglement between the two systems.