Steady-State Discord Between Two Qubits Coupled Collectively to a Thermal Reservoir

We study the dynamics of quantum discord between two qubits coupled collectively to a thermal reservoir. For comparison, we also consider the dynamics of quantum entanglement. It is shown that we can obtain a stable quantum discord induced by the thermal environment when the discord of the initial state is zero. The thermal environment can also induce a stable amplification of the initially prepared quantum discord for certain X-type states. It is very valuable that the quantum discord is more resistant against the thermal environment than quantum entanglement. And, we have demonstrated that the sudden death of discord in a Markovian regime is impossible even at high temperature. It provides us a feasible way to create and protect quantum correlation in the case of a high-temperature thermal environment for various physical system such as trapped ions, quantum dots or Josephson junctions.     

Quantifying non-classical correlations under thermal effects in a double cavity optomechanical system

We investigate the generation of quantum correlations between mechanical modes and optical modes in an optomechanical system,using the rotating wave approximation.The system is composed of two Fabry-Perot cavities separated in space;each of the two cavities has a movable end-mirror.Our aim is the evaluation of entanglement between mechanical modes and optical modes,generated by correlations transfer from the squeezed light to the system,using Gaussian intrinsic entanglement as a witness of entanglement in continuous variables Gaussian states,and the quantification of the degree of mixedness of the Gaussian states using the purity.Then,we quantify nonclassical correlations between mechanical modes and optical modes even beyond entanglement by considering Gaussian geometric discord via the Hellinger distance.Indeed,entanglement,mixdness,and quantum discord are analyzed as a function of the parameters characterizing the system(thermal bath temperature,squeezing parameter,and optomechanical cooperativity).We find that,under thermal effect,when entanglement vanishes,purity and quantum discord remain nonzero.Remarkably,the Gaussian Hellinger discord is more robust than entanglement.The effects of the other parameters are discussed in detail.     

Classical Correlation and Quantum Discord in a Two Qubit System Under Dissipation Environments

We study the dynamics of classical correlation and quantum discord of two-qubit system interacted with the thermal reservoir. Special attention is paid to the difference between the entanglement and quantum discord when considering the influences of the nonzero mean photon number and quantum fluctuation of the vacuum. It is shown that in the same range of the physical parameters, the factors leading to the entanglement sudden death only accelerates the decay of quantum discord, and the quantum discord can last for an infinite period when the entanglement disappears. So the quantum discord is more robust than entanglement under this decoherence environment, and quantum discord is a more general measure of quantum correlation than entanglement.     

量子关联与原子间相互作用距离关系的研究

本文将两个二能级原子注入一个腔中,用共生纠缠的方法来度量两原子之间的纠缠并推出它们之间的量子失协,还给出了原子与环境之间的共生纠缠与量子失协的计算公式,讨论了原子自发衰变率的变化对量子纠缠及失协的影响,及不同的初始状态情况下,纠缠及失协随原子距离的演化情况。结果表明：原子自发衰变率减小,原子与环境之间的量子纠缠及失协增加;选择不同的初态,可以控制原子间出现纠缠死亡的现象或量子失协为零的状态。     

量子关联与原子间相互作用距离关系的研究

本文将两个二能级原子注入一个腔中,用共生纠缠的方法来度量两原子之间的纠缠并推出它们之间的量子失协,还给出了原子与环境之间的共生纠缠与量子失协的计算公式,讨论了原子自发衰变率的变化对量子纠缠及失协的影响,及不同的初始状态情况下,纠缠及失协随原子距离的演化情况.结果表明:原子自发衰变率减小,原子与环境之间的量子纠缠及失协增加;选择不同的初态,可以控制原子间出现纠缠死亡的现象或量子失协为零的状态.     

量子关联与原子间相互作用距离关系的研究

本文将两个二能级原子注入一个腔中,用共生纠缠的方法来度量两原子之间的纠缠并推出它们之间的量子失协,还给出了原子与环境之间的共生纠缠与量子失协的计算公式,讨论了原子自发衰变率的变化对量子纠缠及失协的影响,及不同的初始状态情况下,纠缠及失协随原子距离的演化情况。结果表明：原子自发衰变率减小,原子与环境之间的量子纠缠及失协增加;选择不同的初态,可以控制原子间出现纠缠死亡的现象或量子失协为零的状态。     

Quantum coherence and correlation dynamics of two-qubit system in spin bath environment

The quantum entanglement,discord,and coherence dynamics of two spins in the model of a spin coupled to a spin bath through an intermediate spin are studied.The effects of the important physical parameters including the coupling strength of two spins,the interaction strength between the intermediate spin and the spin bath,the number of bath spins and the temperature of the system on quantum coherence and correlation dynamics are discussed in different cases.The frozen quantum discord can be observed whereas coherence does not when the initial state is the Bell-diagonal state.At finite temperature,we find that coherence is more robust than quantum discord,which is better than entanglement,in terms of resisting the influence of environment.Therefore,quantum coherence is more tenacious than quantum correlation as an important resource.     

Dynamics of Quantum Discord of Two-Qubit Coupled with a Vacuum Cavity

The dynamical behaviors of quantum discord between two atoms coupled with a vacuum cavity are investigated. If the two qubits are initially prepared in two extended Werner-like states, the quantum discord and entanglement can be numerically calculated. There are remarkable differences between the time evolutions of the quantum discord and entanglement under the same conditions. These results imply that quantum discord is not zero for some unentangled states and in some regions entanglement can disappear completely. A large amount of quantum discord exists between the two-qubit. Thus, the quantum discord is more robust than entanglement for the quantum system exposed to the environment. The quantum discord shows sudden change and its existence depends on the initial state of the system. This property of quantum discord may have important implications for experimental characterization of quantum phase transitions.     

Entanglement and Quantum Discord Dynamics of Two Atoms in a Broadband Squeezed Vacuum Bath

We study the dynamics of entanglement and quantum discord between two two-level atoms that interact with a common squeezed reservoir. It is shown that the degree of entanglement and quantum discord are very sensitive to the degree of two-photon correlation for large values of the mean photon number. The squeezed vacuum environment can drive the system to a stationary state with high entanglement and quantum discord for certain X-type states. Furthermore, sudden change happens to the dynamics of quantum discord while the entanglement is remained almost unchanged.     

Investigations on quantum correlation of coupled qubits in squeezed vacuum reservoir

In this paper, we investigate the quantum correlation of coupled qubits which are initially in maximally entangled mixed states in squeezed vacuum reservoir. We compare and analyse the effects of squeezed parameters on quantum discord and quantum concurrence. The results show that in squeezed vacuum reservoir, the quantum discord and quantum concurrence perform completely opposite behaviors to the change of squeezed parameters. Quantum discord survives longer with the increase of squeezed amplitude parameter, but entanglement death turns faster on the contrary. The results also indicate that the classical correlation of the system is smaller than quantum discord in vacuum reservoir, while it is bigger than quantum discord in squeezed vacuum reservoir. The quantum discord and classical correlation are more robust than quantum concurrence in the two reservoir environments, which indicates that the entanglement actually is easily affected by decoherence and quantum discord has stronger ability to avoid decoherence in squeezed vacuum reservoir.     

Mode analysis of surface plasmon metal-dielectric-metal nanowire array waveguide at sub-wavelength scale

The investigation of quantum and classical correlations has mostly concentrated on two-qubit states because the minimization in the classical correlation is quite complicated for high-dimensional states. Thermal quantum and classical correlations are studied for a two-qutrit system with various coupling constants, external magnetic fields, and temperatures as well, where the quantum correlation is described in terms of the quantum discord that has been extensively used in recent literature. The entanglement negativity is calculated for comparison. It is shown that the discord is nonzero whereas the negativity is zero in some ranges of system parameters and temperature. Moreover, the discord is more robust than the entanglement against temperature and magnetic field. However, at lower temperatures all three correlations behave similarly. Those are useful for understanding quantum correlations in high-dimensional mixed states and quantum information processing.     

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.     

Investigations into quantum correlation of coupled qubits in a squeezed vacuum reservoir

In this paper,we investigate the quantum correlation of coupled qubits which are initially in maximally entangled mixed states in a squeezed vacuum reservoir.We compare and analyze the effects of squeezed parameters on quantum discord and quantum concurrence.The results show that in a squeezed vacuum reservoir,the quantum discord and quantum concurrence perform with completely opposite behaviors with the change of squeezed parameters.Quantum discord survives longer with the increase of squeezed amplitude parameter,but entanglement death is faster on the contrary.The results also indicate that the classical correlation of the system is smaller than quantum discord in a vacuum reservoir,while it is bigger than quantum discord in a squeezed vacuum reservoir.The quantum discord and classical correlation are more robust than quantum concurrence in the two reservoir environments,which indicates that the entanglement actually is easily affected by decoherence and quantum discord has a stronger ability to avoid decoherence in a squeezed vacuum reservoir.     

Dynamics of quantum discord in two Tavis-Cummings models with classical driving fields

We investigate the dynamics of quantum discord in a system consisting of two Tavis-Cummings models, each of which contains two atoms driven by a classical field. We compare the dynamics of quantum discord for the system with that of entanglement and show that quantum discord vanishes only asymptotically although entanglement disappears suddenly during the time evolution. Furthermore, we examine the influence of the initial states and the classical field on the discord dynamics and find that the value of quantum discord can be improved by adjusting the classical driving field. Finally, the quantum discord of two atoms in dissipative cavity is also discussed.     

Quantum Discord of Two Atoms Interacting with a Single-mode Thermal Field

This paper investigates the quantum discord and entanglement of two atoms when they simultaneously interact with a single-mode thermal field. The results show that, the two atoms which are initially in separate states can be entangled by a thermal field. However, with increase of the mean photon number, the value of the entanglement decreases and disappears when the temperature of the cavity is high enough (corresponding to the large value of the mean photon number). In stark contrast, the quantum discord does not decrease, but gradually reaches stable value at high temperature. In addition, when the two atoms are initially the Werner mixed state, we have found that, a large amount of quantum discord is exist even in the region where the entanglement is zero, which is a strong signature for the presence of non classical correlations. These results indicate that, the quantum discord is more resistant to the environment’s disturbance than the entanglement for higher temperatures.     

A study on quantum discord sudden changes

For open quantum systems, quantum discord sudden changes (QDSCs) may appear in the dynamics instead of sudden death appears in quantum entanglement. In this paper, we study the dynamics of quantum discord and explore the relation between the entanglement sudden death and QDSC. We find that the QDSC is sensitive to the initial states and the excitation number in the total system (the qubits  +  environment). By using the geometric measurement of the quantum correlation, the geometric interpretation for the QDSC is presented and the condition for the emergence of the QDSC is given. Furthermore, we observe that the entanglement sudden death and QDSC do not have one to one correspondence for open quantum systems.     

Quantum correlations dynamics of three-qubit states coupled to an XY spin chain: Role of coupling strengths

We investigate the prominent impacts of coupling strengths on the evolution of entanglement and quantum discord for a three-qubit system coupled to an XY spin-chain environment. In the case of a pure W state, more robust, even larger nonzero quantum correlations can be obtained by tailoring the coupling strengths between the qubits and the environment.For a mixed state consisting of the GHZ and W states, the dynamics of entanglement and quantum discord can characterize the critical point of quantum phase transition. Remarkably, a large nonzero quantum discord is generally retained, while the nonzero entanglement can only be obtained as the system-environment coupling satisfies certain conditions. We also find that the impact of each qubit's coupling strength on the quantum correlation dynamics strongly depends on the variation schemes of the system-environment couplings.     

压缩真空态中原子与场的量子纠缠和量子discord

在压缩真空库中,研究了原子与场的相互作用下二比特体系的量子discord和量子纠缠的动力学行为.重点分析了原子的初始态系数和压缩真空库的压缩系数对量子纠缠和量子discord的影响.通过数值分析我们得到,随着原子的初始态系数和压缩真空库的压缩系数值的增加,量子纠缠和量子discord都会减小,但量子纠缠比量子discord减小的更快一些.最后研究了在原子的初始态系数和压缩真空库的压缩系数的值相同的情况下,量子discord比量子纠缠存在的时间更长些.     

Enlarged omnidirectional photonic gap in one dimensional ternary plasma photonic crystals that contain metamaterials

We study the dynamics of multipartite quantum correlations measured by the lower bound of concurrence and quantum discord in a three-qubit system coupled to an XY spin chain. For the initial pure GHZ and W state, we find the lower bound of entanglement is more robust than the quantum discord against the decoherence induced by the spin environment. But for the Werner state, the sudden death of discord is not observed even in the presence of entanglement sudden death. By comparing the evolutions for the GHZ and W states, we show that the W state preserves more quantum correlations than the GHZ state. In addition, we put research emphasis on the relation between the dynamics of multipartite quantum correlations and the quantum phase transition of the spin environment.     

Dynamics and protection of tripartite quantum correlations in a thermal bath

We study the dynamics and protection of tripartite quantum correlations in terms of genuinely tripartite concurrence, lower bound of concurrence and tripartite geometric quantum discord in a three-qubit system interacting with independent thermal bath. By comparing the dynamics of entanglement with that of quantum discord for initial GHZ state and W state, we find that W state is more robust than GHZ state, and quantum discord performs better than entanglement against the decoherence induced by the thermal bath. When the bath temperature is low, for the initial GHZ state, combining weak measurement and measurement reversal is necessary for a successful protection of quantum correlations. But for the initial W state, the protection depends solely upon the measurement reversal. In addition, the protection cannot usually be realized irrespective of the initial states as the bath temperature increases.