  We show that the Hilbert-Schmidt distance, unlike the trace distance, between
quantum states is generally not monotonic for open quantum systems subject to
Lindblad semigroup dynamics. Sufficient conditions for contractivity of the
Hilbert-Schmidt norm in terms of the dissipation generators are given. Although
these conditions are not necessary, simulations suggest that non-contractivity
is the typical case, i.e., that systems for which the Hilbert-Schmidt distance
between quantum states is monotonically decreasing form only a small set of all
possible dissipative systems for N>2, in contrast to the case N=2 where the
Hilbert-Schmidt distance is always monotonically decreasing.
