For a closed quantum system, a dynamical invariant is defined as an operator whose expectation value is a constant. In this paper, we extend the concept of dynamical invariants from closed systems to open systems. A dynamical equation for invariants (the dynamical invariant condition) is derived for Markovian dynamics. Different from dynamical invariants of closed quantum systems, the time evolution of dynamical invariants of open quantum systems is no longer unitary, and eigenvalues of any invariant are time dependent in general. Since any Hermitian operator which can fulfill the dynamical invariant condition is a dynamical invariant, we construct a type of special dynamical invariant of which a part of the eigenvalues is still constant. The dynamical invariants in the subspace spanned by these eigenstates thus evolve unitarily.

• Received 12 October 2015
• Revised 16 November 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.062122