Quantum interference between independent reservoirs in open quantum systems

When a quantum system interacts with multiple reservoirs, the environmental effects are usually treated in an additive manner. We show that this assumption breaks down for non-Markovian environments that have finite memory times. Specifically, we demonstrate that quantum interferences between independent environments can qualitatively modify the dynamics of the physical system. We illustrate this effect with a two-level system coupled to two structured photonic reservoirs, discuss its origin using a nonequilibrium diagrammatic technique, and show an example when the application of this interference can result in an improved dark state preparation in a Lambda system.