2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/224015We demonstrate how the dynamical coarse-graining approach can be systematically extended to higher orders in the coupling between system and reservoir. Up to second order in the coupling constant we explicitly show that dynamical coarse-graining unconditionally preserves positivity of the density matrix -- even for bath density matrices that are not in equilibrium and also for time-dependent system Hamiltonians. By construction, the approach correctly captures the short-time dynamics, i.e., it is suitable to analyze non-Markovian effects. We compare the dynamics with the exact solution for highly non-Markovian systems and find a remarkable quality of the coarse-graining approach. The extension to higher orders is straightforward but rather tedious. The approach is especially useful for bath correlation functions of simple structure and for small system dimensions.17 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in PRAQuantum PhysicsMesoscale and Nanoscale Physicstext