Generalized Kraus operators and generators of quantum dynamical semigroups

Abstract

Quantum dynamical semigroups play an important role in the description of physical processes such as diffusion, radiative decay or other non-equilibrium events. Taking strongly continuous and trace preserving semigroups into consideration, we show that, under a special criterion, the generator of such a group admits a certain generalized standard form, thereby shedding new light on known approaches in this direction. Furthermore, we illustrate our analysis in concrete examples.