We investigate the non-Markovian dynamics of quantum steering in a tripartite photonic system subject to dephasing noise. By developing a theoretical framework based on the single-photon dephasing model extended to three independent photons, we analyze the temporal evolution of steering measures SA−BC and SAB−C for two distinct classes of initial states: W-type entangled states and GHZ-type mixed entangled states. The system is studied under various environmental configurations, ranging from fully Markovian to fully non-Markovian regimes, with asymmetric distributions of memory effects across the three photons. Our results reveal that the dynamics of tripartite steering are highly sensitive to both the number of photons coupled to non-Markovian environments and the specific partition of the system being considered. For W-states, non-Markovian effects induce oscillatory behavior with death–revival cycles, where the intervals of sudden death and revival amplitudes depend critically on the distribution of memory effects. For GHZ-states, we observe multiple death–revival cycles in some configurations and prolonged preservation of steering without complete sudden death in others. Notably, we find that non-Markovian environments significantly influence the dynamics of quantum steering through information backflow effects, with their impact depending sensitively on the subsystem to which the environment is coupled and on the roles of the steering and steered parties. These findings demonstrate that non-Markovian effects can significantly influence the preservation and degradation of directional quantum correlations, with their impact depending strongly on the coupling configuration and the choice of steering and steered subsystems. This behavior provides useful insight into the control of quantum steering in photonic networks and related quantum information processing tasks.
Bougouffa et al. (2026) studied this question.