Entanglement distillation by dissipation and continuous quantum repeaters

Even though entanglement is very vulnerable to interactions with the environment, it can be created by purely dissipative processes. Yet, the attainable degree of entanglement is profoundly limited in the presence of noise sources. We show that distillation can also be realized dissipatively, such that a highly entangled steady state is obtained. The schemes put forward here display counterintuitive phenomena, such as improved performance if noise is added to the system. We also show how dissipative distillation can be employed in a continuous quantum repeater architecture, in which the resources scale polynomially with the distance.     

Stochastic resonance phenomena in spin chains

We discuss stochastic resonance-like effects in the context of coupled quantum spin systems. We focus here on an information-theoretic approach and analyze the steady state quantum correlations (entanglement) as well as the global correlations in the system when subject to different forms of local decoherence. In the presence of decay, it has been shown that the system displays quantum correlations only when the noise strength is above a certain threshold. We extend this result to the case of a Heisenberg XYZ exchange interaction and revise and clarify the mechanisms underlying this behaviour. In the presence of pure dephasing, we show that the system always remains separable in the steady state. When both types of noise are present, we show that the system can still exhibit entanglement for long times, provided that the pure dephasing rate is not too large.     

Stationary State Entanglement of Two Atoms Inside an Optical Cavity under Noise

In this paper, the entanglement properties of a system of two atoms inside an optical cavity in a stochastic interaction with field are studied by the Jaynes-Cummings Model. The phase telegraph noise is considered as a noise term and an exact solution to the model is obtained. The solution reveals the resulting decoherence effects of the noise on the entanglement properties of the system. It shows that under the noise the individual atoms do not entangle with the cavity field. However, a strong atom-atom entanglement is observed in a stationary state. It is seen that a relatively strong noise is cooperative in the construction of the steady state atom-atom entanglement.     

Dynamical Creation of Entanglement and Steady Entanglement Between Two Spatially Separated Λ-Type Atoms

We report possibility of generating entanglement and steady entanglement between two identical atoms in free space with a very natural way when their spatial separation is on the order of wavelength or less. We show a dynamical creation of entanglement and steady entanglement due to the radiative coupling with different separable initial atomic states and study the entanglement properties about this atomic subsystem. Not only the creation of steady state entanglement is decided by the initial atomic states, but also the magnitude of the entanglement and the steady state entanglement are found to be strongly dependent on the initial states. We derive a master equation for the atomic subspace and solve it analytically to show how the spontaneous emission from the two atoms system induces entanglement and steady entanglement, the crossing coupling terms in master equation can enhance the entanglement value.     

Effects of colored noise on the dynamics of quantum entanglement of a one-parameter qubit—qutrit system

We analyzed the effect of colored noise on the negativity dynamics of a hybrid system consisting of a qubit-qutrit and not interacting, prepared from the start in an entangled one-parameter state and acting with noise in local and non-local environments. In this pink and brown noise we investigated two different situations: in the first situation, the noise is produced by a bistable oscillator with an unknown exchange rate; however, in the second situation, the noise is generated by a set of bistable oscillators. We found that entanglement decreases with time to zero, and undergoes the phenomenon of sudden death and rebirth. The pink noise is more prone to entanglement than the brown noise and the non-local environment is more prone to entanglement than the local one. When the number of fluctuators is increased, entanglement decays faster and finally, for certain parameters of the initial state, the subsystems are not affected by the noise.     

Markov Quantum Feedback Control Based on Homodyne Measurement of a Two-Qubit System

We consider the system consisting of two qubits collectively damped,with the output being unit-efficiency measured and subsequently fedback to control the system state. Our primary goal in this paper is (i) to solve the feedback-modified master equation, (ii) to demonstrate the ability of feedback control based on the solutions, and (iii) to pick out different steady states by choosing different driving strengths and feedback strengths tocounteract the effects of both damping and the measurement back-action on the system. We further investigate some properties of the equilibrium steady state, its distribution probability and entanglement vs. the driving and feedback amplitudes. We find that in our feedback model feedback plays a negative role in producing entanglement.     

Entanglement Swapping in the Presence of White and Color Noise

The influence of white and color noise on the outcome of the entanglement swapping process is investigated in a four-qubit system. Critical degree of noise in initial state, that could destroy entanglement in a result state is presented. The entanglement characteristics, such as concurrence, tangle, etc. are compared. Results could be helpful for experiments regarding entanglement swapping as conditions for initial quantum entangled states, to obtain entangled result state.     

Enhancing entanglement generation of two atoms in a cavity with white noise using classical driving fields

We investigate the entanglement dynamics of a quantum system consisting of two two-level atoms in a cavity with classical driving fields in the presence of white noise.The cavity is initially prepared in the vacuum state.Generally,the entanglement of two atoms decreases with the intensity of the thermal fields and the coupling strength of the two-level atoms to the thermal fields.However,we find that the entanglement of the quantum system can be enhanced by adjusting the frequency and the strength of the classical driving fields in the presence of white noise.     

Linear response of tripartite entanglement to infinitesimal noise

Recent experimental progress in prolonging the coherence time of a quantum system prompts us to explore the behavior of quantum entanglement at the beginning of the decoherence process. The response of the entanglement under an infinitesimal noise can serve as a signature of the robustness of entangled states. A crucial problem of this topic in multipartite systems is to compute the degree of entanglement in a mixed state. We find a family of global noise in three-qubit systems, which is composed of four W states. Under its influence, the linear response of the tripartite entanglement of a symmetrical three-qubit pure state is studied. A lower bound of the linear response is found to depend completely on the initial tripartite and bipartite entanglement. This result shows that the decay of tripartite entanglement is hastened by the bipartite one.     

Multilevel atomic entanglement induced by spontaneous emission in free space

We investigate two identical Λ-type atoms in free space, and focus on the entanglement between the two atoms. We derive a master equation for the atomic subspace and solve it analytically to show how the spontaneous emission from the two atoms system induces entanglement. The magnitude of the entanglement and the steady state entanglement are found to be strongly dependent on the initial states and the orientation of the dipoles of the two atoms.     

Entanglement dynamics of qubits in a common environment

We use the quantum jump approach to study the entanglement dynamics of a quantum register, which is composed of two or three dipole-dipole coupled two-level atoms, interacting with a common environment. Our investigation of entanglement dynamics reflects that the environment has dual actions on the entanglement of the qubits in the model. While the environment destroys the entanglement induced by the coherent dipole-dipole interactions, it can produce stable entanglement between the qubits prepared initially in a separable state. The analysis shows that it is the entangled decoherence-free states contained as components in the initial state that contribute to the stable entanglement. Our study indicates how the environmental noise produces the entanglement and exposes the interplay of environmental noise and coherent interactions of qubits on the entanglement.     

纠缠比特在不同噪声环境和信道下演化规律的实验研究

量子信息技术主要基于量子纠缠,量子纠缠源作为重要的相干叠加态,其相干性很容易受到环境的影响而变得非常脆弱,甚至导致量子信息处理的失败.因此,全面揭示不同噪声环境和不同噪声信道下量子纠缠源演化规律,进而探寻抑制退相干的方法就显得至关重要.本文以量子信息最基本的单元-两比特纠缠对作为研究对象,实验上利用线性光学系统模拟了比特翻转和相移噪声(集体和非集体),研究了纠缠源在不同噪声环境及单、双和混合噪声信道下保真度的变化规律.实验结果表明:对同一种噪声类型,当纠缠比特经过双通道噪声环境时,其纠缠特性破坏得快;当纠缠比特经过非集体环境时,其纠缠特性消失得快.对不同噪声类型比较,结果表明比特翻转噪声相对于相移噪声更容易破坏纠缠特性.所得结论对纠缠退相干的理论和实验研究具有重要的借鉴意义,同时对基于非线性光学系统的量子信息处理技术具有重要的应用价值.     

Entanglement witnesses of four-qubit tripartite separable quantum states

A quantum entangled state is easily disturbed by noise and degenerates into a separable state. Compared to the entanglement with bipartite quantum systems, less progress has been made for the entanglement with multipartite quantum systems. For tripartite separability of a four-qubit system, we propose two entanglement witnesses, each of which corresponds to a necessary condition of tripartite separability. For the four-qubit GHZ state mixed with a W state and white noise, we prove that the necessary conditions of tripartite separability are also sufficient at W states side.     

Thermal Robustness of Entanglement in a Dissipative Two-Dimensional Spin System in an Inhomogeneous Magnetic Field

Recently new novel magnetic phases were shown to exist in the asymptotic steady states of spin systems coupled to dissipative environments at zero temperature. Tuning the different system parameters led to quantum phase transitions among those states. We study, here, a finite two-dimensional Heisenberg triangular spin lattice coupled to a dissipative Markovian Lindblad environment at finite temperature. We show how applying an inhomogeneous magnetic field to the system at different degrees of anisotropy may significantly affect the spin states, and the entanglement properties and distribution among the spins in the asymptotic steady state of the system. In particular, applying an inhomogeneous field with an inward (growing) gradient toward the central spin is found to considerably enhance the nearest neighbor entanglement and its robustness against the thermal dissipative decay effect in the completely anisotropic (Ising) system, whereas the beyond nearest neighbor ones vanish entirely. The spins of the system in this case reach different steady states depending on their positions in the lattice. However, the inhomogeneity of the field shows no effect on the entanglement in the completely isotropic (XXX) system, which vanishes asymptotically under any system configuration and the spins relax to a separable (disentangled) steady state with all the spins reaching a common spin state. Interestingly, applying the same field to a partially anisotropic (XYZ) system does not just enhance the nearest neighbor entanglements and their thermal robustness but all the long-range ones as well, while the spins relax asymptotically to very distinguished spin states, which is a sign of a critical behavior taking place at this combination of system anisotropy and field inhomogeneity.     

Robustness of Entanglement During Decoherence

Finding the most robust entangled states during the whole process of decoherence is a particularly fundamental problem for quantum physics and quantum information processing. In this paper, the decoherence process of two-qubit system under two individual identical decoherence channels is investigated systematically. We find that although the robustness of two-qubit states with same initial entanglement is usually different, the Bell-like states are always the most robust entangled states during decoherence. That is to say, affected by the same amount of noise, the remain entanglement of an arbitrary two-qubit state is not more than that of a Bell-like state with the same initial entanglement.     

压缩相干态光场与Λ型三能级原子相互作用的纠缠特性

利用量子熵理论,研究了压缩相干态光场与Λ型三能级原子的量子纠缠随时间的演化特性.结果表明:光场与原子纠缠度依赖于初态原子能级叠加系数、光场压缩参量、相干态振幅参量及失谐量与耦合系数之比.当光场压缩参量增大时,光场与原子的最大纠缠度增大;若场失谐量与耦合系数之比增大,光场与原子纠缠则呈现周期性演化,系统呈现接近退纠缠;若场失谐量与耦合系数之比增大,光场与原子纠缠呈现周期性,场失谐量与耦合系数的比值足够大时,在一定时刻系统可处于稳定的最大纠缠态,且系统演化呈现周期性.     

Dynamical creation of entanglement versus disentanglement in a system of three-level atoms with vacuum-induced coherences

The dynamics of entanglement between three-level atoms coupled to the common vacuum is investigated. We show that the collective effects such as collective damping, dipole-dipole interaction and the cross coupling between orthogonal dipoles, play a crucial role in the process of creation of entanglement. In particular, the additional cross coupling enhances the production of entanglement. For the specific initial states we find that the effect of delayed sudden birth of entanglement, recently invented by Ficek and Tana? [Ficek, R. Tana?, Phys. Rev. A 77 (2008) 054301] in the case of two-level atoms, can also be observed in the system. When the initial state is entangled, the process of spontaneous emission causes destruction of correlations and its disentanglement. We show that the robustness of initial entanglement against the noise can be changed by local operations performed on the state.     

压缩相干态光场与Λ型三能级原子相互作用的纠缠特性

利用量子熵理论,研究了压缩相干态光场与Λ型三能级原子的量子纠缠随时间的演化特性.结果表明：光场与原子纠缠度依赖于初态原子能级叠加系数、光场压缩参量、相干态振幅参量及失谐量与耦合系数之比.当光场压缩参量增大时,光场与原子的最大纠缠度增大;若场失谐量与耦合系数之比增大,光场与原子纠缠则呈现周期性演化,系统呈现接近退纠缠;若场失谐量与耦合系数之比增大,光场与原子纠缠呈现周期性,场失谐量与耦合系数的比值足够大时,在一定时刻系统可处于稳定的最大纠缠态,且系统演化呈现周期性.     

Controlling Sudden Birth and Sudden Death of Entanglement at Finite Temperature

The decoherence and the decay of quantum entanglement due to both population relaxation and thermal effects are investigated for the two qubits initially prepared in the extended Werner-like state by solving the Lindblad form of the master equation, where each qubit is interacting with an independent reservoir at finite temperature T. Entanglement sudden death (ESD) and entanglement sudden birth (ESB) are observed during the evolution process. We analyze in detail the effects of the mixedness, the degree of entanglement of the initial states and finite temperature on the time of entanglement sudden death and entanglement sudden birth. We also obtain an analytic formula for the steady state concurrence that shows its dependence on both the system parameters, the decoherence rate and finite temperature. These results arising from the combination of extended Werner-like initial state and independent thermal reservoirs suggest an approach to control the maximum possible concurrence even after the purity and finite temperature induce sudden birth, death and revival.