Arbitrary quantum superposition state for three-level system using oscillating dark states

An method for adiabatic population transfer and the preparation of an arbitrary quantum superposition state using the oscillating dark states (ODS) in atomic system is presented. Quantum state of a three-level Λ configuration atomic system finally evolves into the same time-dependent state, and oscillates periodically between two ground levels under evolving adiabatic conditions when two pairs of classical detuning laser fields drive the system into the ODS forcedly, whatever the initial states of the system are. The decoherence of the ODS evolution is greatly suppressed and the oscillation is very stable, therefore adiabatic population transfer and the preparation of an arbitrary quantum superposition state of atomic system can be completed accurately and conveniently.     

How to measure the decoherence of a micromaser field under well controlled conditions

We discuss a possible realization of a quantum register with controllable decoherence in terms of /0> and /1> photon number states of a micromaser field. It is shown how to create in the Jaynes-Cummings model a superposition state of /0> and /1> photon number states inside a closed micromaser cavity. The loss of phase coherence between these two states can subsequently be measured by a second probe atom monitoring the decoherence of the field. A technique is proposed for forming the superposition of number states /0> and /1> using the time structure of the Rabi oscillation. The proposed method avoids problems with stray fields at the cavity holes, which disturb the coherence of the atomic superposition, and offers a way to study how the coupling strength to the environment influences the decoherence rate, displaying the robustness of physical qubits and the fidelity of quantum computations.     

噪声对一种三粒子量子探针态的影响

量子度量学是研究量子测量与统计推断的一门学科,主要利用量子手段来提高参数估计的精度,在量子信息处理与测量中起到关键作用.量子参数估计的一般过程包含四个步骤:探针态的制备、参数化过程、对参数化后的输出态进行测量以及根据测量结果估计待测参数.其中探针态的选取对测量精度起着至关重要的作用.然而在实际的量子探针态的制备过程中,初始探针态会受到环境噪声的影响.目前人们已经研究了W态与Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger(GHZ)态的量子Fisher信息(QFI)在典型噪声通道下的变化行为.由于W态与GHZ态有着不同的纠缠性质,对于W态与GHZ态的叠加态的QFI动力学研究具有重要的实际意义.故此,本文主要研究典型噪声通道对这两种状态的叠加态的QFI动力学行为的影响,得出了QFI随噪声参数的变化行为.结果表明,叠加态中W态组分可明显对抗相位阻尼噪声对探针态的QFI的影响,而其中的GHZ态组分可明显对抗振幅阻尼噪声的影响,从而为在实际环境中选取高精度的参数估计过程提供参考.     

Towards quantum superpositions of a mirror

We propose an experiment for creating quantum superposition states involving of the order of 10(14) atoms via the interaction of a single photon with a tiny mirror. This mirror, mounted on a high-quality mechanical oscillator, is part of a high-finesse optical cavity which forms one arm of a Michelson interferometer. By observing the interference of the photon only, one can study the creation and decoherence of superpositions involving the mirror. A detailed analysis of the requirements shows that the experiment is within reach using a combination of state-of-the-art technologies.     

Preferred states of decoherence under intermediate system-environment coupling

The notion that decoherence rapidly reduces a superposition state to an incoherent mixture implicitly adopts a special representation, namely, the representation of preferred (pointer) states (PS). For weak or strong system-envrionment interaction, the behavior of PS is well known. Via a simple dynamical model that simulates a two-level system interacting with few other degrees of freedom as its environment, it is shown that even for intermediate system-environment coupling, approximate PS may still emerge from the coherent quantum dynamics of the whole system in the absence of any thermal averaging. The found PS can also continuously deform to expected limits for weak or strong system-environment coupling. Computational results are also qualitatively explained. The findings should be useful towards further understanding of decoherence and quantum thermalization processes.     

A Simple Example of “Quantum Darwinism”: Redundant Information Storage in Many-Spin Environments

As quantum information science approaches the goal of constructing quantum computers, understanding loss of information through decoherence becomes increasingly important. The information about a system that can be obtained from its environment can facilitate quantum control and error correction. Moreover, observers gain most of their information indirectly, by monitoring (primarily photon) environments of the “objects of interest.” Exactly how this information is inscribed in the environment is essential for the emergence of “the classical” from the quantum substrate. In this paper, we examine how many-qubit (or many-spin) environments can store information about a single system. The information lost to the environment can be stored redundantly, or it can be encoded in entangled modes of the environment. We go on to show that randomly chosen states of the environment almost always encode the information so that an observer must capture a majority of the environment to deduce the system’s state. Conversely, in the states produced by a typical decoherence process, information about a particular observable of the system is stored redundantly. This selective proliferation of “the fittest information” (known as Quantum Darwinism) plays a key role in choosing the preferred, effectively classical observables of macroscopic systems. The developing appreciation that the environment functions not just as a garbage dump, but as a communication channel, is extending our understanding of the environment’s role in the quantum-classical transition beyond the traditional paradigm of decoherence.     

Quantum Correlation in Circuit QED Under Various Dissipative Modes

Dynamical evolutions of quantum correlations in circuit quantum electrodynamics (circuit-QED) are investigated under various dissipative modes. The influences of photon number, coupling strength, detuning and relative phase angle on quantum entanglement and quantum discord are compared as well. The results show that quantum discord may be less robust to decoherence than quantum entanglement since the death and revival also appears. Under certain dissipative mode, the decoherence subspace can be formed in circuit-QED due to the cooperative action of vacuum field. Whether a decoherence subspace can be formed not only depends on the form of quantum system but also relates closely to the dissipative mode of environment. One can manipulate decoherence through manipulating the correlation between environments, but the effect depends on the choice of initial quantum states and dissipative modes. Furthermore, we find that proper relative phase of initial quantum state provides one means of suppressing decoherence.     

Influences of decoherence on the generation of a macroscopic superposition state using weak cross-Kerr effect

Considering a system in which a single photon and a coherent field propagate through a Kerr medium, when the weak cross-Kerr interaction between the coherent state and the single photon under decoherence is involved, this paper derives analytically a macroscopic superposition state by the superoperator method and investigates the influences of decoherence on the coherence properties of the obtained state. It finds that the macroscopic superposition state will experience evolution from a pure superposltion state to a mixed state in a dissipative environment and the Kerr effect makes the field display a periodic revival from decoherence for a short time.     

Influences of decoherence on the generation of a macroscopic superposition state using weak cross-Kerr effect

Considering a system in which a single photon and a coherent field propagate through a Kerr medium, when the weak cross-Kerr interaction between the coherent state and the single photon under decoherence is involved, this paper derives analytically a macroscopic superposition state by the superoperator method and investigates the influences of decoherence on the coherence properties of the obtained state. It finds that the macroscopic superposition state will experience evolution from a pure superposition state to a mixed state in a dissipative environment and the Kerr effect makes the field display a periodic revival from decoherence for a short time.     

多粒子纠缠的保护方案

量子纠缠是量子信息的重要物理资源. 然而当量子系统与环境相互作用时, 会不可避免地产生消相干导致纠缠下降, 因此保护纠缠不受环境的影响具有重要意义. 振幅衰减是一种典型的衰减机制. 如果探测环境保证没有激发从系统中流出, 即视为对系统的一种弱测量. 本文基于局域脉冲序列和弱测量, 提出了一种可以保护多粒子纠缠不受振幅衰减影响的有效物理方案, 保护的对象是在量子通信和量子计算中发挥重要作用的Cluster态和Maximal slice态.     

存在相位退相干时原子与光场相互作用的纠缠演化和保持

应用全量子理论研究了存在相位退相干时单模相干光场与一个二能级原子相互作用系统纠缠的时间演化规律;分别讨论了原子—光场耦合常数、光场的平均光子数以及失谐量的大小对场与原子纠缠的影响.结果表明:随着原子—光场耦合常数的增大和光场平均光子数的增加,系统纠缠的振荡频率都会明显增大.不存在相位退相干时,纠缠的时间演化明显受到失谐量的影响,若选取适当的失谐量,系统的纠缠可长时间保持在最大纠缠态.若考虑相位退相干的影响,则在共振情况下系统纠缠的时间演化是一个逐渐衰减的过程,且最终衰减到零;但若存在适当的失谐量,则在初始一段时间内系统的纠缠也是一个波动幅度逐渐衰减的过程,但随着时间的演化,失谐量抵消了相位退相干的影响,使系统的纠缠不再衰减到零.如果增大失谐量,纠缠在初始一段时间内波动的幅度会相应的减小,并且纠缠趋于稳定的时间也随着失谐量的增大而缩短;当失谐量适当时,系统可保持在纠缠相对较大的状态而无消纠缠态.     

Spontaneous decoherence of coupled harmonic oscillators confined in a ring

We study the spontaneous decoherence of coupled harmonic oscillators confined in a ring container, where the nearest-neighbor harmonic potentials are taken into consideration. Without any external symmetry-breaking field or surrounding environment, the quantum superposition state prepared in the relative degrees of freedom gradually loses its quantum coherence spontaneously. This spontaneous decoherence is interpreted by the gauge couplings between the center-of-mass and the relative degrees of freedoms, which actually originate from the symmetries of the ring geometry and the corresponding nontrivial boundary conditions. In particular, such spontaneous decoherence does not occur at all at the thermodynamic limit because the nontrivial boundary conditions become the trivial Born-von Karman boundary conditions when the perimeter of the ring container tends to infinity. Our investigation shows that a thermal macroscopic object with certain symmetries has a chance for its quantum properties to degrade even without applying an external symmetry-breaking field or surrounding environment.     

Localization of a macroscopic object induced by the factorization of internal adiabatic motion

To account for the phenomenon of quantum decoherence of a macroscopic object, such as the localization and disappearance of interference, we invoke the adiabatic quantum entanglement between its collective states (such as that of the center-of-mass (CM)) and its inner states based on our recent investigation. Under the adiabatic limit where motion of the CM does not excite the transition of inner states, it is shown that the wave function of the macroscopic object can be written as an entangled state with correlation between adiabatic inner states and quasi-classical motion configurations of the CM. Since the adiabatic inner states are factorized with respect to each component of the macroscopic object, this adiabatic separation can induce the quantum decoherence. This observation thus provides us with a possible solution to the Schr?dinger cat paradox. Received 24 October 2000 and Received in final form 8 March 2001     

Statistical constraints on state preparation for a quantum computer

Quantum computing algorithms require that the quantum register be initially present in a superposition state. To achieve this, we consider the practical problem of creating a coherent superposition state of several qubits. We show that the constraints of quantum statistics require that the entropy of the system be brought down when several independent qubits are assembled together. In particular, we have: (i) not all initial states are realizable as pure states; (ii) the temperature of the system must be reduced. These factors, in addition to decoherence and sensitivity to errors, must be considered in the implementation of quantum computers.     

Environment-induced decoherence I. The Stern-Gerlach measurement

A dynamical model for the collapse of the wave function in a quantum measurement process is proposed by considering the interaction of a quantum system (spin -1/2) with a macroscopic quantum apparatus interacting with an environment in a dissipative manner. The dissipative interaction leads to decoherence in the superposition states of the apparatus, making its behaviour classical in the sense that the density matrix becomes diagonal with time. Since the apparatus is also interacting with the system, the probabilities of the diagonal density matrix are determined by the state vector of the system. We consider a Stern-Gerlach type model, where a spin-1/2 particle is in an inhomogeneous magnetic field, the whole set up being in contact with a large environment. Here we find that the density matrix of the combined system and apparatus becomes diagonal and the momentum of the particle becomes correlated with a spin operator, selected by the choice of the system-apparatus interaction. This allows for a measurement of spin via a momentum measurement on the particle with associated probabilities in accordance with quantum principles.     

Spontaneous recoherence of quantum states after decoherence

In this work, we identify the set of time-dependent pure states building the statistical mixture to which a system, initially in a pure state, is driven by the reservoir. This set of time-dependent pure states, composing what we term a pure basis, are those that diagonalize the reduced density operator of the system. Next, we show that the evolution of the pure-basis states reveals an interesting phenomenon as the system, after decoherence, evolves toward the equilibrium: the spontaneous recoherence of quantum states. Around our defined recoherence time, the statistical mixture associated with a special kind of initial states termed even-symmetric, spontaneously undergoes a recoherence process, by which the initial state of the system emerges from the mixture except for its reduced excitation drained into the reservoir. This phenomenon reveals that the reservoir only shuffle the original information carried out by the initial state of the system instead of erasing it. Moreover, as the spontaneously recohered state occurs only for asymptotic time, we also present a protocol to extract it from the mixture through specific projective measurements. The password to retrieve the original information stems is the knowledge of both the initial state itself and the associated pure basis. A definition of the decoherence time of an N-state superposition is also presented.     

Partial Traces in Decoherence and in Interpretation: What Do Reduced States Refer to?

The interpretation of the concept of reduced state is a subtle issue that has relevant consequences when the task is the interpretation of quantum mechanics itself. The aim of this paper is to argue that reduced states are not the quantum states of subsystems in the same sense as quantum states are states of the whole composite system. After clearly stating the problem, our argument is developed in three stages. First, we consider the phenomenon of environment-induced decoherence as an example of the case in which the subsystems interact with each other; we show that decoherence does not solve the measurement problem precisely because the reduced state of the measuring apparatus is not its quantum state. Second, the non-interacting case is illustrated in the context of no-collapse interpretations, in which we show that certain well-known experimental results cannot be accounted for due to the fact that the reduced states of the measured system and the measuring apparatus are conceived as their quantum states. Finally, we prove that reduced states are a kind of coarse-grained states, and for this reason they cancel the correlations of the subsystem with other subsystems with which it interacts or is entangled.     

Engineering of Two Quantum States via Conditional Measurement on Two-Mode Squeezed State

We propose a scheme for the simultaneously preparation radiation-field modes of a single photon and a superposition of zero- and one-photon states, based on the coherent quantum state displacement and photon subtraction from two-mode squeezed state. It is shown that the single-photon and the superposition states can be obtained by only choosing the suitable parameter of displacements. The experimental feasibility to accomplish this scheme is also discussed.     

Entanglement Swapping of Pair Coherent States with Phase Decoherence

We investigate the entanglement swapping of continuous state and the two-mode squeezed vacuum which is exposed variable using the pair coherent state as the input in a phase decoherence environment as the quantum channel. By adopting the log-negativity as the measure of entanglement, we analyze how entanglement of the two initial states and the phase decoherence environment affect the entanglement swapping quality.