Universal Lindblad Equation for Open Quantum Systems

We develop a Markovian master equation in the Lindblad form that enables the efficient study of a wide range of open quantum many-body systems that would be inaccessible with existing methods. The validity of the master equation is based entirely on properties of the bath and the system-bath coupling, without any requirements on the level structure of the system. The master equation is derived rigorously using a Markov approximation distinct from earlier approaches.  We discuss how our method can be applied to static or driven quantum many-body systems, and illustrate its power through numerical simulation of a spin chain that would be challenging to treat by existing methods.