Juan Pablo Paz

Decoherence, chaos, and the second law.

Quantum wave function of a chaotic system spreads rapidly over distances on which the potential is significantly nonlinear. As a result, the effective force is no longer just a gradient of the potential, and predictions of classical and quantum dynamics begin to differ. We show how the interaction with the environment limits distances over which quantum coherence can persist, and therefore reconciles quantum dynamics with classical Hamiltonian chaos. The entropy production rate for such open chaotic systems exhibits a sharp transition between reversible and dissipative regimes, where it is set by the chaotic dynamics.

Dynamics of the entanglement between two oscillators in the same environment.

We provide a complete characterization of the evolution of entanglement between two resonant oscillators coupled to a common environment. We identify three phases with different qualitative long time behavior. There is a phase where entanglement undergoes a sudden death. Another phase (sudden death and revival) is characterized by an infinite sequence of events of sudden death and revival of entanglement. In the third phase (no sudden death) there is no sudden death of entanglement, which persists for a long time. The phase diagram is described and analytic expressions for the boundary between phases are obtained. These results are applicable to a large variety of non-Markovian environments. The case of nonresonant oscillators is also numerically investigated.

Quantum Limit of Decoherence: Environment Induced Superselection of Energy Eigenstates

We investigate decoherence in the limit where the interaction with the environment is weak and the evolution is dominated by the self-Hamiltonian of the system. We show that in this case quantized eigenstates of energy emerge as pointer states selected through the predictability sieve. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}

Quantum computers in phase space

We represent both the states and the evolution of a quantum computer in phase space using the discrete Wigner function. We study properties of the phase space representation of quantum algorithms: apart from analyzing important examples, such as the Fourier transform and Grovers search, we examine the conditions for the existence of a direct correspondence between quantum and classical evolutions in phase space. Finally, we describe how to measure directly the Wigner function in a given phase-space point by means of a tomographic method that, itself, can be interpreted as a simple quantum algorithm.

Decoherence from spin environments

We examine an exactly solvable model of decoherence - a spin-system interacting with a collection of environment spins. We show that in this model (introduced some time ago to illustrate environment-induced superselection) generic assumptions about the coupling strengths lead to a universal (Gaussian) suppression of coherence between pointer states. We explore the regimes of validity of these results and discuss their relation to the spectral features of the environment and to the Loschmidt echo (or fidelity). Finally, we comment on the observation of such time dependence in spin echo experiments.We examine two exactly solvable models of decoherence\char22{}a central spin-system, (i) with and (ii) without a self-Hamiltonian, interacting with a collection of environment spins. In the absence of a self-Hamiltonian we show that in this model (introduced some time ago to illustrate environment-induced superselection) generic assumptions about the coupling strengths can lead to a universal (Gaussian) suppression of coherence between pointer states. On the other hand, we show that when the dynamics of the central spin is dominant a different regime emerges, which is characterized by a non-Gaussian decay and a dramatically different set of pointer states. We explore the regimes of validity of the Gaussian decay and discuss its relation to the spectral features of the environment and to the Loschmidt echo (or fidelity).

Nonequilibrium quantum fields in the large-N expansion.

An effective action technique for the time evolution of a closed system consisting of one or more mean fields interacting with their quantum fluctuations is presented. By marrying large-[ital N] expansion methods to the Schwinger-Keldysh closed time path formulation of the quantum effective action, causality of the resulting equations of motion is ensured and a systematic, energy-conserving and gauge-invariant expansion about the quasiclassical mean field(s) in powers of 1/[ital N] developed. The general method is exposed in two specific examples, O([ital N]) symmetric scalar [lambda][Phi][sup 4] theory and quantum electrodynamics (QED) with [ital N] fermion fields. The [lambda][Phi][sup 4] case is well suited to the numerical study of the real time dynamics of phase transitions characterized by a scalar order parameter. In QED the technique may be used to study the quantum nonequilibrium effects of pair creation in strong electric fields and the scattering and transport processes in a relativistic [ital e][sup +][ital e][sup [minus]] plasma. A simple renormalization scheme that makes practical the numerical solution of the equations of motion of these and other field theories is described.

Quantum chaos: a decoherent definition

Abstract We show that the rate of increase of Von Neumann entropy computed from the reduced density matrix of an open quantum system is an excellent indicator of the dynamical behavior of its classical Hamiltonian counterpart. In decohering quantum analogs of systems which exhibit classical Hamiltonian chaos entropy production rate quickly tends to a constant which is given by the sum of the positive Lyapunov exponents, and falls off only as the system approaches equilibrium. By contrast, integrable systems tend to have an entropy production rate which decreases as t −1 well before equilibrium is attained. Thus, behavior of quantum systems in contact with the environment can be used as a test to determine the nature of their Hamiltonian evolution.

Decoherence and the Loschmidt Echo

Decoherence causes entropy increase that can be quantified using, e.g., the purity sigma=Trrho(2). When the Hamiltonian of a quantum system is perturbed, its sensitivity to such perturbation can be measured by the Loschmidt echo M(t). It is given by the squared overlap between the perturbed and unperturbed state. We describe the relation between the temporal behavior of sigma(t) and the average Mmacr;(t). In this way we show that the decay of the Loschmidt echo can be analyzed using tools developed in the study of decoherence. In particular, for systems with a classically chaotic Hamiltonian the decay of sigma and Mmacr; has a regime where it is dominated by the Lyapunov exponents.

Dynamical phases for the evolution of the entanglement between two oscillators coupled to the same environment

We study the dynamics of the entanglement between two oscillators that are initially prepared in a general two-mode Gaussian state and evolve while coupled to the same environment. In a previous paper we showed that there are three qualitatively different dynamical phases for the entanglement in the long time limit: sudden death, sudden death and revival and no-sudden death [Paz & Roncaglia, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 220401 (2008)]. Here we generalize and extend those results along several directions: We analyze the fate of entanglement for an environment with a general spectral density providing a complete characterization of the corresponding phase diagrams for ohmic and sub--ohmic environments (we also analyze the super-ohmic case showing that for such environment the expected behavior is rather different). We also generalize previous studies by considering two different models for the interaction between the system and the environment (first we analyze the case when the coupling is through position and then we examine the case where the coupling is symmetric in position and momentum). Finally, we analyze (both numerically and analytically) the case of non-resonant oscillators. In that case we show that the final entanglement is independent of the initial state and may be non-zero at very low temperatures. We provide a natural interpretation of our results in terms of a simple quantum optics model.

Interpretation of tomography and spectroscopy as dual forms of quantum computation

It is important to be able to determine the state of a quantum system and to measure properties of its evolution. State determination can be achieved using tomography, in which the system is subjected to a series of experiments, whereas spectroscopy can be used to probe the energy spectrum associated with the systems evolution. Here we show that, for a quantum system whose state or evolution can be modelled on a quantum computer, tomography and spectroscopy can be interpreted as dual forms of quantum computation. Specifically, we find that the phase estimation algorithm (which underlies a quantum computers ability to perform efficient simulations and to factorize large numbers) can be adapted for tomography or spectroscopy. This is analogous to the situation encountered in scattering experiments, in which it is possible to obtain information about both the state of the scatterer and its interactions. We provide an experimental demonstration of the tomographic application by performing a measurement of the Wigner function (a phase space distribution) of a quantum system. For this purpose, we use three qubits formed from spin-1/2 nuclei in a quantum computation involving liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance.