G. Compagno

Non-Markovian effects on the dynamics of entanglement

A procedure that allows us to obtain the dynamics of N independent bodies each locally interacting with its own reservoir is presented. It relies on the knowledge of single-body dynamics and it is valid for any form of environment noise. It is then applied to the study of non-Markovian dynamics of two independent qubits, each locally interacting with a zero-temperature reservoir. It is shown that, although no interaction is present or mediated between the qubits, there is a revival of their entanglement, after a finite period of time of its complete disappearance.

Entanglement dynamics of two independent qubits in environments with and without memory

Here is analyzed the dynamics of two-qubit entanglement, when the two qubits are initially in a mixed extended Werner-like state and each of them is in a zero temperature non-Markovian environment. The dependence of entanglement dynamics on the purity and degree of entanglement of the initial states and on the amount of non-Markovianity is also given. This extends the previous work about non-Markovian effects on the two-qubit entanglement dynamics for initial Bell-like states [Bellomo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 160502 (2007)]. The effect on the two-qubit entanglement dynamics of nonzero temperature in Markovian environments is finally studied.

Entanglement Trapping in Structured Environments

Department of Physics, University of Turku, Turun yliopisto, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland(Dated: May 20, 2008)The entanglement dynamics of two independent qubits each embedded in a structured environ-ment under conditions of inhibition of spontaneous emission is analyzed, showing entanglementtrapping. We demonstrate that entanglement trapping can be used efficiently to prevent entangle-ment sudden death. For the case of realistic photonic band-gap materials, we show that high valuesof entanglement trapping can be achieved. This result is of both fundamental and applicative inter-est since it provides a physical situation where the entanglement can be preserved and manipulated,e.g. by Stark-shifting the qubit transition frequency outside and inside the gap.

Experimental recovery of quantum correlations in absence of system-environment back-action

Revivals of quantum correlations in composite open quantum systems are a useful dynamical feature against detrimental effects of the environment. Their occurrence is attributed to flows of quantum information back and forth from systems to quantum environments. However, revivals also show up in models where the environment is classical, thus unable to store quantum correlations, and forbids system-environment back-action. This phenomenon opens basic issues about its interpretation involving the role of classical environments, memory effects, collective effects and system-environment correlations. Moreover, an experimental realization of back-action-free quantum revivals has applicative relevance as it leads to recover quantum resources without resorting to more demanding structured environments and correction procedures. Here we introduce a simple two-qubit model suitable to address these issues. We then report an all-optical experiment which simulates the model and permits us to recover and control, against decoherence, quantum correlations without back-action. We finally give an interpretation of the phenomenon by establishing the roles of the involved parties.

DYNAMICS OF QUANTUM CORRELATIONS IN TWO-QUBIT SYSTEMS WITHIN NON-MARKOVIAN ENVIRONMENTS

Knowledge of the dynamical behavior of correlations with no classical counterpart, like entanglement, nonlocal correlations and quantum discord, in open quantum systems is of primary interest because of the possibility to exploit these correlations for quantum information tasks. Here we review some of the most recent results on the dynamics of correlations in bipartite systems embedded in non-Markovian environments that, with their memory effects, influence in a relevant way the system dynamics and appear to be more fundamental than the Markovian ones for practical purposes. Firstly, we review the phenomenon of entanglement revivals in a two-qubit system for both independent environments and a common environment. We then consider the dynamics of quantum discord in non-Markovian dephasing channel and briefly discuss the occurrence of revivals of quantum correlations in classical environments.

Revival of quantum correlations without system-environment back-action

Revivals of quantum correlations have often been explained in terms of back-action on quantum systems by their quantum environment(s). Here we consider a system of two independently evolving qubits, each locally interacting with a classical random external field. The environments of the qubits are also independent, and there is no back-action on the qubits. Nevertheless, entanglement, quantum discord and classical correlations between the two qubits may revive in this model. We explain the revivals in terms of correlations in a classical-quantum state of the environments and the qubits. Although classical states cannot store entanglement on their own, they can play a role in storing and reviving entanglement. It is important to know how the absence of back-action, or modelling an environment as classical, affects the kind of system time evolutions one is able to describe. We find a class of global time evolutions where back-action is absent and for which there is no loss of generality in modelling the environment as classical. Finally, we show that the revivals can be connected with the increase of a parameter used to quantify non-Markovianity of the single-qubit dynamics.

Hierarchy and dynamics of trace distance correlations

We define and analyze measures of correlations for bipartite states based on trace distance. For Bell diagonal states of two qubits, in addition to the known expression for quantum correlations using this metric, we provide analytic expressions for the classical and total correlations. The ensuing hierarchy of correlations based on trace distance is compared to those based on relative entropy and Hilbert–Schmidt norm. Although some common features can be found, the trace distance measure is shown to differentiate from the others in that the closest uncorrelated state to a given bipartite quantum state is not given by the product of the marginals, and further, the total correlations are strictly smaller than the sum of the quantum and classical correlations. We compare the various correlation measures in two dynamical non-Markovian models, locally applied phase-flip channels and random external fields. It is shown that the freezing behavior, observed across all known valid measures of quantum correlations for Bell diagonal states under local phase-flip channels, occurs for a larger set of starting states for the trace distance than for the other metrics.

Dynamics of geometric and entropic quantifiers of correlations in open quantum systems

We extend the Hilbert-Schmidt (square norm) distance, previously used to define the geometric quantum discord, to define also geometric quantifiers of total and classical correlations. We then compare the dynamics of geometric and entropic quantifiers of the different kinds of correlations in a non-Markovian open two-qubit system under local dephasing. We find that qualitative differences occur only for quantum discords. This is taken to imply that geometric and entropic discords are not, in general, equivalent in describing the dynamics of quantum correlations. We then show that also geometric and entropic quantifiers of total correlations present qualitative disagreements in the state space. This aspect indicates that the differences found for quantum discord are not attributable to a different separation, introduced by each measure, between the quantum and classical parts of correlations. Finally, we find that the Hilbert-Schmidt distance formally coincides with a symmetrized form of linear relative entropy.

Unified view of correlations using the square-norm distance

The distance between a quantum state and its closest state not having a certain property has been used to quantify the amount of correlations corresponding to that property. This approach allows a unified view of the various kinds of correlations present in a quantum system. In particular, using relative entropy as a distance measure, total correlations can be meaningfully separated into a quantum part and a classical part thanks to an additive relation involving only the distances between states. Here we investigate a unified view of correlations using as a distance measure the square norm, which has already been used to define the so-called geometric quantum discord. We thus also consider geometric quantifiers for total and classical correlations, finding, for a quite general class of bipartite states, their explicit expressions. We analyze the relationship among geometric total, quantum, and classical correlations, and we find that they no longer satisfy a closed additivity relation.

The role of the cloud of virtual photons in the shift of the ground state energy of a hydrogen atom

Abstract The division of the hamiltonian of a hydrogen atom into three parts: atomic, radiation and interaction, together with the use of non-relativistic second-order perturbation theory, is shown to yield a physical interpretation of the energy shift of the ground state which emphasizes the role of the field due to the cloud of virtual photons which surround the atom.