Self-restricting Noise and Quantum Relative Entropy Decay

Open quantum systems as modeled by quantum channels and quantum Markov semigroups usually decay to subspaces that are invariant under environmental interactions. It is known that finite-dimensional semigroups with detailed balance decay exponentially under modified logarithmic-Sobolev inequalities (MLSIs). Here we analyze discrete and continuous processes that include unitary components, breaking the detailed balance assumption. We find counter-examples to analogs of MLSIs for these systems. The generalized quantum Zeno effect appears for many Lindbladians that combine a decay process with unitary drift. As incompatible long-time and Zeno limits compete, strong noise often protects subsystems and subspaces from its own spread. We observe this interplay between decay and Zeno-like effects experimentally on superconducting qubits using IBM Q devices. Nonetheless, by combining MLSIs for effective self-adjoint decay processes across different times, we obtain eventual exponential decay. We similarly obtain decay rate lower bounds for discrete compositions of quantum channels.