The Gorini–Kossakowski–Sudarshan–Lindblad problem and the geometry of CP maps

Abstract The Lindblad equation embodies a fundamental paradigm of the quantum theory of open systems, and the Gorini–Kossakowski–Sudarshan–Lindblad generation theorem says precisely which superoperators can appear on its right-hand side. These are the generators of completely positive (CP) trace-preserving (or nonincreasing) semigroups. We prove a generalization, with time-dependent generator, as an application of an investigation of the geometry of the class of CP maps. The treatment of the finite-dimensional setting is based on a basis-free Choi–Jamiołkowski type isomorphism. The infinite-dimensional case is bootstrapped from the finite-dimensional theory via a sequence of finite-dimensional approximations. Kraus decomposition is established along the way, in the guise of an extremal decomposition of the closed convex cone of CP maps. No appeal is made to results from the representation theory of operator algebras.