Stationary entanglement between macroscopic mechanical oscillators

We show that the optomechanical coupling between an optical cavity mode and two movable cavity mirrors is able to entangle two different macroscopic oscillation modes of the mirrors. This continuous variable entanglement is maintained by the light bouncing between the mirrors and is robust against thermal noise. In fact, it could be experimentally demonstrated using present technology. Received 2 September 2002 / Received in final form 10 October 2002 Published online 7 January 2003     

Environment-induced decoherence II. Effect of decoherence on Bell''s inequality for an EPR pair

According to Bell's theorem, the degree of correlation between spatially separated measurements on a quantum system is limited by certain inequalities if one assumes the condition of locality. Quantum mechanics predicts that this limit can be exceeded, making it nonlocal. We analyse the effect of an environment modelled by a fluctuating magnetic field on the quantum correlations in an EPR singlet as seen in the Bell inequality. We show that in an EPR setup, the system goes from the usual ‘violation’ of Bell's inequality to a ‘non-violation’ for times larger than a characteristic time scale which is related to the parameters of the fluctuating field. We also look at these inequalities as a function of the spatial separation between the EPR pair.     

Effect of incoherent scattering on three-terminal quantum Hall thermoelectrics

A three-terminal conductor presents peculiar thermoelectric and thermal properties in the quantum Hall regime: it can behave as a symmetric rectifier and as an ideal thermal diode. These properties rely on the coherent propagation along chiral edge channels. We investigate the effect of breaking the coherent propagation by the introduction of a probe terminal. It is shown that chiral effects not only survive the presence of incoherence but they can even improve the thermoelectric performance in the totally incoherent regime.     

Dependence of noise induced effects on state preparation in multiqubit systems

The perturbation of multiqubit systems by an external noise can induce various effects like decoherence, stochastic resonance and anti-resonance, and noise-shielding. We investigate how the appearance of these effects on disentanglement time depends on the initial preparation of the systems. We present results for 2-, 3- and 4-qubit chains in various arrangements and observe a clear dependence on the combination of initial geometry of the state space and the placement of noise. Finally, we see that temperature can play a constructive role for the control of these noise induced effects.     

Geometric phase in a composite system subjected to decoherence

In this paper, we investigate the geometric phase of a composite system which is composed of two spin- particles driven by a time-varying magnetic field. Firstly, we consider the special case that only one subsystem driven by time-varying magnetic field. Using the quantum jump approach, we calculate the geometric phase associated with the adiabatic evolution of the system subjected to decoherence. The results show that the lowest order corrections to the phase in the no-jump trajectory is only quadratic in decoherence coefficient. Then, both subsystem driven by time-varying magnetic field is considered, we show that the geometric phase is related to the exchange-interaction coefficient and polar angle of the magnetic field.     

扩散过程中弱相干光场的退相干

研究了扩散过程中弱相干光场量子特性的演化.利用正规乘积、反正规乘积和Weyl编序算符内的积分技术,采用热纠缠态表象求解密度矩阵主方程,利用Kraus算符给出扩散过程中密度算符解的表达式,导出初态为弱相干态的量子态密度算符演化规律.讨论了扩散对光场压缩效应和反聚束效应的影响.结果表明:随着扩散过程的进行,弱相干场压缩深度和压缩范围均在减小;扩散初期光场呈反聚束效应,扩散时间大于一定值后反聚束效应消失.     

Number of particle creation and decoherence in the nonideal dynamical Casimir effect at finite temperature

In this work we investigate the dynamical Casimir effect in a nonideal cavity by deriving an effective Hamiltonian. We first compute a general expression for the average number of particle creation, applicable for any law of motion of the cavity boundary, under the only restriction of small velocities. We also compute a general expression for the linear entropy of an arbitrary state prepared in a selected mode, also applicable for any law of motion of a slow moving boundary. As an application of our results we have analyzed both the average number of particle creation and linear entropy within a particular oscillatory motion of the cavity boundary. On the basis of these expressions we develop a comprehensive analysis of the resonances in the number of particle creation in the nonideal dynamical Casimir effect. We also demonstrate the occurrence of resonances in the loss of purity of the initial state and estimate the decoherence times associated with these resonances. Since our results were obtained in the framework of the perturbation theory, they are restricted, under resonant conditions, to a short-time approximation.     

Classicality,the Ensemble Interpretation,and Decoherence: Resolving the Hyperion Dispute

We analyze seemingly contradictory claims in the literature about the role played by decoherence in ensuring classical behavior for the chaotically tumbling satellite Hyperion. We show that the controversy is resolved once the very different assumptions underlying these claims are recognized. In doing so, we emphasize the distinct notions of the problem of classicality in the ensemble interpretation of quantum mechanics and in decoherence-based approaches that are aimed at addressing the measurement problem.     

Decoherence in quantum mechanics

We study decoherence in a simple quantum mechanical model using two approaches. Firstly, we follow the conventional approach to decoherence where one is interested in solving the reduced density matrix from the perturbative master equation. Secondly, we consider our novel correlator approach to decoherence where entropy is generated by neglecting observationally inaccessible correlators. We show that both methods can accurately predict decoherence time scales. However, the perturbative master equation generically suffers from instabilities which prevents us to reliably calculate the system’s total entropy increase. We also discuss the relevance of the results in our quantum mechanical model for interacting field theories.     

Pairwise entanglement in the Heisenberg XX model with three-site interactions

We investigate the effects of three-site interactions on the pairwise entanglement in a three-qubit Heisenberg XX model. We find the three-site interactions only in favor of the thermal entanglement and benefit the teleportation between the next-to-nearest neighbor qubits. In addition, we also study the stationary entangled state in the model with intrinsic decoherence taken into account. The influence of different types of three-site interactions on the stationary entangled state is then examined.