While considering non-Hermitian Hamiltonians arising in the presence of dissipation, in most cases, the dissipation is taken to be frequency-independent. However, this idealization may not always be applicable in experimental settings, where dissipation can be frequency-dependent. Such frequency-dependent dissipation leads to non-Markovian behavior. In this Letter, we demonstrate how a quantum non-Markovian Hatano-Nelson model arises microscopically in a quasi-one-dimensional dissipative lattice. This is achieved using nonequilibrium Green’s functions without requiring any approximation like weak system-bath coupling or a timescale separation, which would have been necessary for a Markovian treatment. The resulting effective system exhibits nonreciprocal hopping, the defining characteristic of the Hatano-Nelson model, as well as uniform dissipation, both of which are frequency-dependent. This holds for both bosonic and fermionic settings. We find solely non-Markovian nonreciprocal features like unidirectional frequency blocking in bosonic settings, and a particular type of nonequilibrium dissipative quantum phase transition in fermionic settings, that cannot be captured in a Markovian theory, nor have any analogs in reciprocal systems. Our results lay the groundwork for describing and engineering non-Markovian nonreciprocal quantum lattices.

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• Non-reciprocal transmission
• Open quantum systems
• Non-Hermitian systems
• Non-Markovian processes