Classical and quantum correlations for two-mode coherent-state superposition

Quantum discord, a kind of quantum correlation, is defined as the mismatch between two quantum analogues of classically equivalent expressions of the mutual information. Distinguish classical and quantum correlations in quantum systems is therefore of both fundamental and practical importance. We investigate here the dynamics of classical and quantum correlations for two-mode coherent-state superposition in vacuum environment, which are known to be particularly useful for quantum information processing. By analytical and numerical analyzes we find that, contrary to what is usually stated in the literature, quantum discord under decoherence may exhibit sudden death and sudden birth phenomena, and we show also that the classical and quantum correlations vanish at infinite time. Moreover, the quantum discord may be less or more robust than entanglement against environment depending on different strength regimes of the optical fields of the two-mode coherent-state superposition.     

Correlation dynamics of qubit-qutrit systems in a classical dephasing environment

We study the time evolution of classical and quantum correlations for hybrid qubit-qutrit systems in independent and common dephasing environments. Our discussion involves a comparative analysis of the Markovian dynamics of negativity, quantum discord, geometric measure of quantum discord and classical correlation. For the case of independent environments, we have demonstrated the phenomenon of sudden transition between classical and quantum decoherence for qubit-qutrit states. In the common environment case, we have shown that dynamics of quantum and geometric discords might be completely independent of each other for a certain time interval, although they tend to be eventually in accord.     

Quantum and Classical Correlations for Interacting and Noninteracting Qubits in Contact with Different Environments

We study the time evolution of the classical and quantum correlations for interacting and noninteracting two-qubit systems under the influence of noncorrelated and correlated environmental models. We discuss the dependence of different physical quantifiers on the environment parameters. Interestingly, we examine the effects of the initial state and different system parameters on the evolution of correlations of the system of qubits in contact with different kinds of environments. We show how the interaction among qubits can protect and preserve the correlation loss during the time evolution for various environmental models. Moreover, we examine the competition between the dissipative and coherent effects in different kinds of correlations dynamics of the system of qubits. Our study gives a deeper understanding on the correlations for a wide variety of the environment models, which is rather significant in different tasks of quantum optics and information.     

Quantum dissonance induced by a thermal field and its dynamics in dissipative systems

In this paper, we study quantum correlation in separable systems termed quantum dissonance [K. Modi, T. Paterek, W. Son, V. Vedral, M. Williamson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 080501 (2010)]. Firstly, we study the emergence of quantum dissonance between two atoms prepared in uncorrelated states and coupled to a single-mode thermal field. We show that even for situations when the thermal field cannot entangle the two atoms, it can nevertheless induce quantum dissonance between them. Then, we investigate the dynamics including the transfer in both Markovian and non-Markovian regimes of quantum dissonance due to dissipation modeled by two independent subsystems each of which consists of a leaky cavity containing a two-level atom and surrounded by a reservoir. The two subsystems possess some amount of atomic quantum dissonance at the beginning but do not interact with each other by any means later on. We show that the quantum dissonance can be transferred among the composite subsystems, but the way it evolves and is transferred may be very different compared to that of entanglement. Finally, we present an efficient method to refrain the unwanted transfer of quantum dissonance from interested systems to reservoirs.     

Frozen entanglement and quantum correlations of one-parameter qubit−qutrit states under classical noise effects

We provide a detailed analysis of the dynamics of entanglement and quantum correlations for one-parameter qubit-qutrit states under independent or common classical noises influence. Namely the static noise, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) noise and the random telegraph noise. Independently of the intrinsic features of the noises, entanglement measured by negativity and quantum correlations measured by measured-induced disturbance (MID) vanish after a finite time under the effects of independent noise environments. In a common environment setup, we show the existence of specific and very important features of perfect insulation of the systems quantum properties from noise effects, for suitable range of the entanglement parameter. We refer these phenomena to as frozen entanglement and frozen quantum correlations. The dichotomy between entanglement (separability) and quantum correlations is strengthened by our results, with the robustness of MID over entanglement and existence of separable qubit-qutrit states with non-zero quantum correlations.     

Prequantum Classical Statistical Field Theory: Schrödinger Dynamics of Entangled Systems as a Classical Stochastic Process

The idea that quantum randomness can be reduced to randomness of classical fields (fluctuating at time and space scales which are essentially finer than scales approachable in modern quantum experiments) is rather old. Various models have been proposed, e.g., stochastic electrodynamics or the semiclassical model. Recently a new model, so called prequantum classical statistical field theory (PCSFT), was developed. By this model a “quantum system” is just a label for (so to say “prequantum”) classical random field. Quantum averages can be represented as classical field averages. Correlations between observables on subsystems of a composite system can be as well represented as classical correlations. In particular, it can be done for entangled systems. Creation of such classical field representation demystifies quantum entanglement. In this paper we show that quantum dynamics (given by Schrödinger’s equation) of entangled systems can be represented as the stochastic dynamics of classical random fields. The “effect of entanglement” is produced by classical correlations which were present at the initial moment of time, cf. views of Albert Einstein.     

Decoherence from a spin chain with Dzyaloshinskii—Moriya interaction

We study the dynamics of quantum discord and entanglement for two spin qubits coupled to a spin chain with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction.In the case of a two-qubit with an initial pure state,quantum correlations decay to zero at the critical point of the environment in a very short time.In the case of a two-qubit with initial mixed state,it is found that quantum discord may get maximized due to the quantum critical behavior of the environment,while entanglement vanishes under the same condition.Besides,we observed a sudden transition between classical and quantum decoherence when only a single qubit interacts with the environment.The effects of Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction on quantum correlations are considered in the two cases.The decay of quantum correlations is always strengthened by Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction.     

Concentration Effect of Quantum and Classical Correlations during Quantum Brachistochrone Evolution

We explore the role of quantum brachistochrone evolution to quantum and classical correlations in three-qubit systems, and show that the time-averaged correlations of three-qubit systems exhibit an obvious concentration effect, which means both the standard deviations of time-averaged quantum and classical correlations decrease with the separation angle. Furthermore, we find that the concentration effect on genuine tripartite entanglement is the most significant during the quantum brachistochrone evolution of three-qubit systems.     

Action in Hamiltonian Models Constructed by Yang-Baxter Equation: Entanglement and Measures of Correlation

By using the quantum Yang-Baxterization approach, we investigate the dynamics of quantum entanglement under the actions of different Hamiltonians on the different two-qubit input states and analyze the effects of the Yang-Baxter operations on it. During any quantum process that takes place in a noisy environment, quantum correlations display behavior that does not increase. We point out that for two-qubit systems subject to actions of different Yang-Baxter operations the loss of correlations can be mitigated by the appropriate choice of the initial states and the Yang-Baxterization process. We show that in a noisy environment it possible to create the optimal conditions for performing any quantum information task.     

Dynamics of Quantum Discord in Asymmetric and Local Non-Markovian Environments

The non-Markovian decoherence of quantum and classical correlationsis analytically obtained when two qubits are asymmetrically subjected to the bit flip channel and phase flip channel. For one class of initial mixed states, quantum correlations quantified by quantum discord decay synchronously with classical correlations. The discovery that the decaying rates of quantum and classical correlations suddenly change at the characteristic time is physically interpreted by the distance from quantum state to the closest classical states. In a large time interval, quantum correlations are greater than classical correlations. The quantum and classical correlations can be preserved over a longer period of time via the kernel characterizing the environment memory effects.     

Influences of Initial States on Entanglement Dynamics of Two Central Spins in a Spin Environment

We investigate the entanglement dynamics of two electronic spins coupled to a bath of nuclear spins for two special cases, one is that two central spins both interact with a common bath, and the other is that one of two spins interacts with a bath. We consider three types of initial states with different correlations between the system and the bath, i.e., quantum correlation, classical correlation, and no-correlation. We show that the initial correlations (no matter quantum correlations or classical correlations) can effectively avoid the occurrence of entanglement sudden death. Irrespective of whether both two spins or only one of the two spins interacts with the bath, the system can gain more entanglement in the process of the time evolution for initial quantum correlations. In addition, we find that the effects of the distribution of coupling constants on entanglement dynamics crucially depend on the initial state of the spin bath.     

Quantum correlation dynamics in photosynthetic processes assisted by molecular vibrations

During the long course of evolution, nature has learnt how to exploit quantum effects. In fact, recent experiments reveal the existence of quantum processes whose coherence extends over unexpectedly long time and space ranges. In particular, photosynthetic processes in light-harvesting complexes display a typical oscillatory dynamics ascribed to quantum coherence. Here, we consider the simple model where a dimer made of two chromophores is strongly coupled with a quasi-resonant vibrational mode. We observe the occurrence of wide oscillations of genuine quantum correlations, between electronic excitations and the environment, represented by vibrational bosonic modes. Such a quantum dynamics has been unveiled through the calculation of the negativity of entanglement and the discord, indicators widely used in quantum information for quantifying the resources needed to realize quantum technologies. We also discuss the possibility of approximating additional weakly-coupled off-resonant vibrational modes, simulating the disturbances induced by the rest of the environment, by a single vibrational mode. Within this approximation, one can show that the off-resonant bath behaves like a classical source of noise.     

Quantum decoherence and classical correlations of the harmonic oscillator in the Lindblad theory

In the framework of the Lindblad theory for open quantum systems we determine the degree of quantum decoherence and classical correlations of a harmonic oscillator interacting with a thermal bath. The transition from quantum to classical behaviour of the considered system is analysed and it is shown that the classicality takes place during a finite interval of time. We calculate also the decoherence time and show that it has the same scale as the time after which statistical fluctuations become comparable with quantum fluctuations.     

Quantum Gibbs Samplers: The Commuting Case

We analyze the problem of preparing quantum Gibbs states of lattice spin Hamiltonians with local and commuting terms on a quantum computer and in nature. Our central result is an equivalence between the behavior of correlations in the Gibbs state and the mixing time of the semigroup which drives the system to thermal equilibrium (the Gibbs sampler). We introduce a framework for analyzing the correlation and mixing properties of quantum Gibbs states and quantum Gibbs samplers, which is rooted in the theory of non-commutative \({\mathbb{L}_p}\) spaces. We consider two distinct classes of Gibbs samplers, one of them being the well-studied Davies generator modelling the dynamics of a system due to weak-coupling with a large Markovian environment. We show that their spectral gap is independent of system size if, and only if, a certain strong form of clustering of correlations holds in the Gibbs state. Therefore every Gibbs state of a commuting Hamiltonian that satisfies clustering of correlations in this strong sense can be prepared efficiently on a quantum computer. As concrete applications of our formalism, we show that for every one-dimensional lattice system, or for systems in lattices of any dimension at temperatures above a certain threshold, the Gibbs samplers of commuting Hamiltonians are always gapped, giving an efficient way of preparing the associated Gibbs states on a quantum computer.     

Control of sudden transition between classical and quantum correlations of two strongly driven atoms in dissipative cavities

We investigate analytically the dynamics of classical and quantum correlations between two strongly driven atoms, each of which is trapped inside a dissipative cavity. It is found that there exists a finite time interval during which the quantum discord initially prepared in the X-type states is not destroyed by the decay of the cavities. The sudden transition between classical correlation and quantum discord is sensitive to the initial-state parameter, the cavity decay rate, and the cavity mode-driving field detuning. Interestingly, we show that the transition time can be prolonged significantly by increasing the degree of the detuning.     

Dynamics of Quantum Dissonance of Two Qubit XXZ Model with Dzyloshinsky-Moriya Interaction Coupled to Non-Markovian Environment

We consider the dynamics of quantum correlations of two coupled spin qubits with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interaction influenced by a local external magnetic field along the z-direction and coupled to bath spin- $\frac{1}{2}$ particles as independent non-Markovian environment. For this model, we calculate the entanglement measure of concurrence, quantum discord and quantum dissonance and find effects of DM interaction, bath-system coupling constant and temperature on the dynamics of quantum correlation. At last, we obtain the teleportation for this model by using fidelity and observe changes of DM interaction, bath-system coupling constant, temperature and magnetic field on fidelity.     

Correlation dynamics of two-parameter qubit-qutrit states under decoherence

We investigate the dynamics of correlations for two-parameter qubit-qutrit states under various local decoherence channels including depahsing, phase-flip, bit- and trit-flip, bit- and trit-phase-flip, and depolarizing channels. We find that, under certain conditions, the classical correlations may not be affected by the noise or decay monotonically. The quantum correlations measured by measurement-induced disturbance (MID) show three types of dynamical behaviors: (i) monotonic decay to zero, (ii) monotonic decay to a nonzero steady value, (iii) increase from zero and then decrease to zero in a monotonic way. Consequently, we find that, differing from the dynamics of entanglement, the present classical and quantum correlations do not reveal sudden death behavior.     

Quantum Discord in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Systems at Room Temperature

We review the theoretical and the experimental researches aimed at quantifying or identifying quantum correlations in liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems at room temperature. We first overview, at the formal level, a method to determine the quantum discord and its classical counterpart in systems described by a deviation matrix. Next, we describe an experimental implementation of that method. Previous theoretical analysis of quantum discord decoherence had predicted the time dependence of the discord to change suddenly under the influence of phase noise. The experiment attests to the robustness of the effect, sufficient to confirm the theoretical prediction even under the additional influence of a thermal environment. Finally, we discuss an observable witness for the quantumness of correlations in two-qubit systems and its first NMR implementation. Should the nature, not the amount, of the correlation be under scrutiny, the witness offers the most attractive alternative.     

Dynamics of quantum discord in photonic crystals

We study the system-reservoir dynamics of quantum correlations in the decoherence phenomenon within a two-qubit composite system interacting with a common photonic band-gap (PBG) environment. We compare the dynamics of entanglement with that of quantum discord. By analytical and numerical analyses we find that, the quantum discord can maintain a constant value in the long-time limit even when entanglement suddenly disappears. We also show that the detuning conditions play a crucial role in controlling quantum correlations of the two-qubit system. In PBG environment, the stationary quantum discord can be attained in well-controlled conditions. Our results have lots of potential applications to quantum information processing in nanostructured materials.