Global quantum discord and quantum phase transition in XY model

We study the relationship between the behavior of global quantum correlations and quantum phase transitions in XY model. We find that the two kinds of phase transitions in the studied model can be characterized by the features of global quantum discord (GQD) and the corresponding quantum correlations. We demonstrate that the maximum of the sum of all the nearest neighbor bipartite GQDs is effective and accurate for signaling the Ising quantum phase transition, in contrast, the sudden change of GQD is very suitable for characterizing another phase transition in the XY model. This may shed lights on the study of properties of quantum correlations in different quantum phases.     

Quantum discord with weak measurements

Weak measurements cause small change to quantum states, thereby opening up the possibility of new ways of manipulating and controlling quantum systems. We ask, can weak measurements reveal more quantum correlation in a composite quantum state? We prove that the weak measurement induced quantum discord, called as the “super quantum discord”, is always larger than the quantum discord captured by the strong measurement. Moreover, we prove the monotonicity of the super quantum discord as a function of the measurement strength and in the limit of strong projective measurement the super quantum discord becomes the normal quantum discord. We find that unlike the normal discord, for pure entangled states, the super quantum discord can exceed the quantum entanglement. Our results provide new insights on the nature of quantum correlation and suggest that the notion of quantum correlation is not only observer dependent but also depends on how weakly one perturbs the composite system. We illustrate the key results for pure as well as mixed entangled states.     

Geometric measure of quantum discord in non-Markovian environments

We study the dynamics of geometric measure of quantum discord between two non-interacting qubits each immersed in its own non-Markovian environment with a spectal distribution representing the electromagnetic field inside off-resonant high-Q cavity. We compared the dynamics of geometric measure of quantum discord with quantum discord for an initial Werner-like state and conclude three important findings. First, when there is an instantaneous disappearance in the dynamics of quantum discord at some timepoints, there is a disappearance in geometric measure of quantum discord, but not instantly. Second, the sudden change in the decay rate of geometric measure of quantum discord might not imply the sudden change in the decay rate of the dynamics of quantum discord. Third, there is a preservation for a long time in both quantum discord and geometric measure of quantum discord when the detuning and non-Markovian conditions are simultaneously satisfied.     

Discrete and generalized phase space techniques in critical quantum spin chains

We apply the Wigner function formalism from quantum optics via two approaches, Wootters' discrete Wigner function and the generalized Wigner function, to detect quantum phase transitions in critical spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ systems. We develop a general formula relating the phase space techniques and the thermodynamical quantities of spin models, which we apply to single, bipartite and multi-partite systems governed by the XY and the XXZ models. Our approach allows us to introduce a novel way to represent, detect, and distinguish first-, second- and infinite-order quantum phase transitions. Furthermore, we show that the factorization phenomenon of the XY model is only directly detectable by quantities based on the square root of the bipartite reduced density matrix. We establish that phase space techniques provide a simple, experimentally promising tool in the study of many-body systems and we discuss their relation with measures of quantum correlations and quantum coherence.     

Creation of quantum correlations between two atoms in a dissipative environment from an initial vacuum state

We have investigated the effect of counter-rotating terms on the dynamics of entanglement and quantum discord between two identical atoms interacting with a lossy single mode cavity field for a system initially in a vacuum state. The counter-rotating terms are found to lead to steady states in the long-time limit which can have high quantum discord, but have no entanglement. The effect of cavity decay rate on this steady-state quantum discord has been also investigated, surprisingly, the increase in cavity decay rate is found to enhance the steady-state quantum discord.     

Monogamy quantum correlation near the quantum phase transitions in the two-dimensional XY spin systems

We investigate the role of quantum correlation around the quantum phase transitions by using quantum renormalization group theory. Numerical analysis indicates that quantum correlation as well as quantum nonlocality can efficiently detect the quantum critical point in the two-dimensional XY systems. The nonanalytic behavior of the first derivative of quantum correlation is observed at the critical point as the size of the model increases. Furthermore, we discuss the quantum correlation distribution in this system based on the square of concurrence(SC) and square of quantum discord(SQD). The monogamous properties of SC and SQD are obtained. Particularly, we prove that the quantum critical point can also be achieved by monogamy score.     

One-norm geometric quantum discord and critical point estimation in the XY spin chain

In contrast with entanglement and quantum discord (QD), we investigate the thermal quantum correlation in terms of Schatten one-norm geometric quantum discord (GQD) in the XY spin chain, and analyze their capabilities in detecting the critical point of quantum phase transition. We show that the one-norm GQD can reveal more properties about quantum correlation between two spins, especially for the long-range quantum correlation at finite temperature. Under the influences of site distance, anisotropy and temperature, one-norm GQD and its first derivative make it possible to detect the critical point efficiently for a general XY spin chain.     

Correlation dynamics of a qubit–qutrit system in a spin-chain environment with Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya interaction

We study the dynamics of correlations for a hybrid qubit-qutrit system in an XY spin-chain environment with Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction. Our discussion involves a comparative analysis of negativity, quantum discord, and measurement-induced disturbance. It is found that the quantum discord is optimal of the three quantum correlations to de- tect the critical point of quantum phase transition. Only when the qubit interacts with the environment, is the phenomenon of sudden transition between the classical correlation and the quantum discord observed. Moreover, the Dzyaloshinsky- Moriya interaction enhances the decay of quantum correlations.     

Quantum discord and classical correlation signatures of mobility edges in one-dimensional aperiodic single-electron systems

We investigate numerically the quantum discord and the classical correlation in a one-dimensional slowly varying potential model and a one-dimensional Soukoulis–Economou ones, respectively. There are well-defined mobility edges in the slowly varying potential model, while there are discrepancies on mobility edges in the Soukoulis–Economou ones. In the slowly varying potential model, we find that extended and localized states can be distinguished by both the quantum discord and the classical correlation. There are sharp transitions in the quantum discord and the classical correlation at mobility edges. Based on these, we study “mobility edges” in the Soukoulis–Economou model using the quantum discord and the classical correlation, which gives another perspectives for these “mobility edges”. All these provide us good quantities, i.e., the quantum discord and the classical correlation, to reflect mobility edges in these one-dimensional aperiodic single-electron systems. Moreover, our studies propose a consistent interpretation of the discrepancies between previous numerical results about the Soukoulis–Economou model.     

基于腔QED系统的几何量子失谐及其传送

研究了基于腔量子电动力学（腔QED）系统的几何量子失谐及其传送。该系统包括两个独立的子系统,每个子系统由两个二能级原子与单模腔共振相互作用。结果表明,所有初始存储在原子A1A2中的几何量子失谐最终被转移到原子B1B2和腔C1C2。同时,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐在该量子系统中可以发生猝死（DSD）以及纠缠突然死亡（ESD）。但是,在该量子系统中几何量子失谐不能完全由于原子的自发辐射和腔衰减而复活。此外,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2几何量子失谐的量,取决于其纯度p,并与其成比例,p的值越小,几何失谐越小。它也表明,在原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐将经历振荡衰减并最终衰减到零。不过,在没有原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐却没有衰减。     

基于腔QED系统的几何量子失谐及其传送

研究了基于腔量子电动力学（腔QED）系统的几何量子失谐及其传送。该系统包括两个独立的子系统,每个子系统由两个二能级原子与单模腔共振相互作用。结果表明,所有初始存储在原子A1A2中的几何量子失谐最终被转移到原子B1B2和腔C1C2。同时,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐在该量子系统中可以发生猝死（DSD）以及纠缠突然死亡（ESD）。但是,在该量子系统中几何量子失谐不能完全由于原子的自发辐射和腔衰减而复活。此外,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2几何量子失谐的量,取决于其纯度p,并与其成比例,p的值越小,几何失谐越小。它也表明,在原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐将经历振荡衰减并最终衰减到零。不过,在没有原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐却没有衰减。     

Discord under the influence of a quantum phase transition

This paper studies the discord of a bipartite two-level system coupling to an XY spin-chain environment in a transverse field and investigates the relationship between the discord property and the environment’s quantum phase transition.The results show that the quantum discord is also able to characterize the quantum phase transitions.We also discuss the difference between discord and entanglement,and show that quantum discord may reveal more general information than quantum entanglement for characterizing the environment’s quantum phase transition.     

Quantum correlation in one-dimensional extended quantum compass model

We study the correlations in the one-dimensional extended quantum compass model in a transverse magnetic field. By exactly solving the Hamiltonian, we find that the quantum correlation of the ground state of one-dimensional quantum compass model is vanishing. We show that quantum discord can not only locate the quantum critical points, but also discern the orders of phase transitions. Furthermore, entanglement quantified by concurrence is also compared.     

Steady state quantum discord for circularly accelerated atoms

We study, in the framework of open quantum systems, the dynamics of quantum entanglement and quantum discord of two mutually independent circularly accelerated two-level atoms in interaction with a bath of fluctuating massless scalar fields in the Minkowski vacuum. We assume that the two atoms rotate synchronically with their separation perpendicular to the rotating plane. The time evolution of the quantum entanglement and quantum discord of the two-atom system is investigated. For a maximally entangled initial state, the entanglement measured by concurrence diminishes to zero within a finite time, while the quantum discord can either decrease monotonically to an asymptotic value or diminish to zero at first and then followed by a revival depending on whether the initial state is antisymmetric or symmetric. When both of the two atoms are initially excited, the generation of quantum entanglement shows a delayed feature, while quantum discord is created immediately. Remarkably, the quantum discord for such a circularly accelerated two-atom system takes a nonvanishing value in the steady state, and this is distinct from what happens in both the linear acceleration case and the case of static atoms immersed in a thermal bath.     

Robustness of entanglement as a signature of quantum phase transitions

We investigate the critical behavior of pairwise entanglement at quantum phase transitions (QPT) in several exactly solvable spin models with noise in system control parameters. We show that the exact critical behavior will change due to noise. When the noise is not too large, pairwise entanglement is robust as a signature of QPT in some spin models.     

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering and Quantum Phase Transition in Spin Chains

We study the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering and quantum phase transitions of the transverse Ising and antiferromagnetic XXZ spin-1/2 chains. By making use of steerable weight, we calculate the steerability for the bipartite subsystems of the models. It is shown that steerability vanishes abruptly and its value maintains zero in a region close to the critical point for the Ising chain. This result is quite different from the information provided by entanglement and quantum discord. While for the XXZ chain, steerability increases and reaches maximal at the critical point, indicating the occurrence of quantum phase transition.     

Quantum Correlation in Three-Qubit Heisenberg Model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction

We investigate the pairwise thermal quantum discord in a three-qubit XXZ model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. We find that the effects of DM interaction on antiferromagnetic system is distinct from that of ferromagnetic system. The magnetic field supplemented with DM term contribute to enhance the range of quantum discord. It is revealed that the situations where quantum discord fails to indicate a sudden change of groundstate at finite temperature though indicating such a sudden change of groundstate at zero temperature. Dynamics of pairwise thermal quantum discord is considered as well. Thermal quantum discord vanishes in asymptotic limit regardless of its initial values, however, thermal entanglement suddenly disappears in finite time.     

Quantum Correlation in Three-Qubit Heisenberg Model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction

We investigate the pairwise thermal quantum discord in a three-qubit XXZ model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. We find that the effects of DM interaction on antiferromagnetic system is distinct from that of ferromagnetic system. The magnetic field supplemented with DM term contribute to enhance the range of quantum discord. It is revealed that the situations where quantum discord fails to indicate a sudden change of groundstate at finite temperature though indicating such a sudden change of groundstate at zero temperature. Dynamics of pairwise thermal quantum discord is considered as well. Thermal quantum discord vanishes in asymptotic limit regardless of its initial values, however, thermal entanglement suddenly disappears in finite time.     

Robust stationary distributed discord in the Jordan-Wigner fermion system under perturbations of the initial state

We investigate the Jordan-Wigner fermion clusters with a stationary distributed quantum pairwise discord. Such clusters appear after the Jordan-Wigner transformation of a spin chain governed by the nearest-neighbor XY Hamiltonian with the particular initial state having one polarized node. We show that the quantum discord stationarity in such systems is not destroyed by the “parasitic” polarization of at least two types. The first type appears because the initial state with a single polarized node is hardly realizable experimentally, and therefore the low polarization of neighboring nodes must be taken into account. The second is the unavoidable additional noise polarization of all nodes. Although the stationarity may not be destroyed by perturbations of the above two types, the parasitic polarizations deform the pairwise discord distribution and may destroy clusters of correlated fermions with equal pairwise discords. Such deformations are studied in this paper.     

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.