Separability Lindblad equation for dynamical open-system entanglement

Providing entanglement for the design of quantum technologies in the presence of noise constitutes today's main challenge in quantum information science. A framework is required that assesses the build-up of entanglement in realistic settings. In this work, we put forth a new class of nonlinear quantum master equations in Lindblad form that unambiguously identifies dynamical entanglement in open quantum systems via deviations from a separable evolution. This separability Lindblad equation restricts quantum trajectories to classically correlated states only. Unlike many conventional approaches, here the entangling capabilities of a process are not characterized by input-output relations, but separability is imposed at each instant of time. We solve these equations for crucial examples, thereby quantifying the dynamical impact of entanglement in nonequilibrium scenarios. Our results allow to benchmark the engineering of entangled states through dissipation. The separability Lindblad equation provides a unique path to characterizing quantum correlations caused by arbitrary system-bath interactions, specifically tailored for the noisy intermediate-scale quantum era.