Incoherent stochastic processes added to unitary dynamics are typically deemed detrimental since they are expected to diminish quantum features such as superposition and entanglement. Instead of exhibiting energy-conserving persistent coherent motion, the dynamics of such open systems feature, in most cases, a steady state, which is approached in the long-time limit from all initial conditions. This can, in fact, be advantageous as it offers a mechanism for the creation of robust quantum correlations on demand without the need for fine-tuning. Here, we show this for a system consisting of two coherently coupled bosonic modes, which is a paradigmatic scenario for the realization of quantum resources such as squeezed entangled states. Rather counterintuitively, the mere addition of incoherent hopping, which results in a statistical coupling between the bosonic modes, leads to steady states with robust quantum entanglement and enables the emergence of persistent coherent nonstationary behavior.

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• Open quantum systems & decoherence
• PT-symmetric quantum mechanics
• Quantum correlations in quantum information
• Quantum correlations, foundations & formalism
• Quantum-to-classical transition
• Semiclassical physics