Markovian heat sources with the smallest heat capacity

Abstract

Thermal Markovian dynamics is typically obtained by coupling a system to a sufficiently hot bath with a large heat capacity. Here we present a scheme for inducing Markovian dynamics using an arbitrarily small and cold heat bath. The scheme is based on injecting phase noise to the small bath. Markovianity emerges when the dephasing rate is larger than the system-bath coupling. Several unique signatures of small baths are studied. We discuss realizations in ion traps and superconducting qubits and show that it is possible to create an ideal setting where the system dynamics is indifferent to the internal bath dynamics.