Decoherence in a system of many two-level atoms

I show that the decoherence in a system of degenerate two-level atoms interacting with a bosonic heat bath is for any number of atoms governed by a generalized Hamming distance (called "decoherence metric") between the superposed quantum states, with a time-dependent metric tensor that is specific for the heat bath. The decoherence metric allows for the complete characterization of the decoherence of all possible superpositions of many-particle states, and can be applied to minimize the overall decoherence in a quantum memory. For qubits which are far apart, the decoherence is given by a function describing single-qubit decoherence times the standard Hamming distance. I apply the theory to cold atoms in an optical lattice interacting with blackbody radiation.     

Particle injection into a chain: decoherence versus relaxation for Hermitian and non‐Hermitian dynamics

A model system for the injection of fermionic particles from filled source sites into an empty chain is investigated. The ensuing dynamics for Hermitian as well as for non‐Hermitian time evolution, where the particles cannot return to the bath sites (quantum ratchet), is studied. A non‐homogeneous hybridization between bath and chain sites permits transient currents in the chain. Non‐interacting particles show decoherence in the thermodynamic limit: the average particle number and the average current density in the chain become stationary for long times, whereas the single‐particle density matrix displays large fluctuations around its mean value. Using the numerical time‐dependent density‐matrix renormalization group (t‐DMRG) method it is demonstrated, on the other hand, that sizable density‐density interactions between the particles introduce relaxation which is by orders of magnitudes faster than the decoherence processes.     

Realization of quantum controlled-NOT gate with resonant interaction

We propose a method for realizing the quantum controlled-NOT gate with a single resonant interaction in cavity QED. Our scheme only requires a single resonant interaction between two atoms and a cavity mode. Thus the scheme is very simple and the quantum dynamics operation can be realized at a high speed, which is important in view of decoherence. In addition, we also show that the gate can be realized in the ion trap system.     

Quantum gate operation with non-instantaneous unitary kicks

A two-qubit controlled-z gate is presented based on the non-instantaneous unitary kicks. Instead of putting two atoms through the cavity simultaneously, we make the atoms cross the cavity sequentially. The interaction between the second atom and the cavity plays the role for kicking the evolution of the system consisting of the first atom and cavity. By repeating the whole process N times, we obtain the controlled-z gate with a high fidelity. The effects of decoherence such as spontaneous emission and the loss of cavity on the average gate fidelity are investigated in virtue of master equation. Furthermore the method for achieving the multi-qubit controlled-z gate is also proposed.     

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.     

Controlling decoherence via PT-symmetric non-Hermitian open quantum systems

We have studied the effect of a non-Hermitian Bosonic bath on the dynamics of a two-level spin system. The non-Hermitian Hamiltonian of the bath is chosen such that it converges to the harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian when the non-Hermiticity is switched off. We calculate the dynamics of the spin system and found that the non-Hermiticity can have positive as well as negative effects on the coherence of the system. However, the decoherence can be completely eliminated by choosing the non-Hermiticity parameter and the phase of the system bath interaction appropriately. We have also studied the effect of this bath on the entanglement of a two-spin system when the bath is acting only on one spin.     

Generation of Wn state with three atoms trapped in two remote cavities coupled by an optical fibre

We propose two schemes for the generation of the Wn state with three atoms separately trapped in two distant cavities coupled by an optical fibre.One is implemented by controlling the interaction time,the other is implemented via the adiabatic passage.The influence of various decoherence processes,such as spontaneous emission of the atoms and photon leakages of the cavities and the optical fibre,on the fidelity is also investigated.It is found that the Wn state can be generated with high fidelity even when these decoherence processes are present.     

Generation correlated four-mode states in cavity QED

A scheme for preparing correlated four-mode states with controllable weighting factors is presented. In the scheme, a sequence of suitably prepared four-level atoms are orderly sent through two bimodal cavities, the detection of all atoms in ground state collapses cavity fields to the desire state. The distinct advantage of our scheme is that the interaction time can be greatly shortened, which is important in view of decoherence.     

Quantum correlation between two qubits induced by a common heat bath

In terms of geometric discord, we study quantum correlations between two qubits interacting with a common heat bath. A necessary and sufficient condition for zero discord for arbitrary two-qubit density matrix is derived. With this condition, we show that a common heat bath can always induce two-qubit quantum correlations if both qubits are initially prepared in arbitrary superposition of “pointer basis”.     

Resonant scheme for realizing quantum phase gates for two separate atoms via coupled cavities

We propose a scheme for realizing conditional quantum phase gates for two atoms that are distributed in two coupled cavities. Due to the resonant interaction in temporal evolution of the entire system, the gate operation time is greatly reduced as compared with that of the nonresonant schemes. We study the influence of imperfections in the interaction and the effect of decoherence and find the gate to be robust. We discuss the issue related to the practical implementation and show that the gate is accessible within the current cavity QED technology.     

Long distance atomic teleportation with as good success as desired

Long distance atomic teleportation (LDAT) is of prime importance in long distance quantum communication. Scheme proposed by Bose et al. (1999) in principle enables us to have LDAT using cavity decay. However it gives message state dependent fidelity and success rate. Here, using interaction of entangled coherent states with atom–cavity systems and a two-step measurement, we show how, LDAT can be achieved with unit fidelity and as good success as desired under ideal conditions. The scheme is unique in that, the first measurement predicts success or failure. If success is predicted then second measurement gives perfect teleportation. If failure is predicted the message-qubit remains conserved therefore a second attempt may be started. We found that even in presence of decoherence due to dissipation of energy our scheme gives message state independent success rate and almost perfect teleportation in single attempt with mean fidelity of teleportation equal to 0.9 at long distances. However if first attempt fails, unlike ideal case where message-qubit remains conserved with unit fidelity, in presence of decoherence the message-qubit remains conserved to some degree, therefore mean fidelity of teleportation can be increased beyond 0.9 by repeating the process.     

Decoherence Suppression in Phase Decoherence Environment Using Weak Measurement and Quantum Measurement Reversal

Decoherence suppression from disturbance of the environment is an essential task in quantum information processing. We investigate decoherence suppression of a qubit system interacting with a heat bath with phase decoherence by employing the weak measurement (WM) and quantum measurement reversal (QMR) operation. We show explicitly that the qubit decoherence can be efficiently completely suppressed by means of the combination WM and QMR, which is independent of the form of the spectral density of the reservoir and the form of initial input state.     

One-Step Generation of Cluster States Assisted by a Strong Driving Classical Field in Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics

We propose a scheme for one-step generation of cluster states with atoms sent through a thermal cavity with strong classical driving field, based on the resonant atom-cavity interaction so that the operating time is sharply short, which is important in the view of decoherence.     

A Decoherence-Reduction Scheme by Waveguides in Quantum Information Processing

Based on the result of cavity quantum electrodynamics, we suggest a method, in which the Fabry-Perot cavity or the confocal cavity is replaced by a waveguide with the size comparable to the wavelength of the photon, to reduce decoherence caused by spontaneous emission in quantum information processing, especially in the realization of quantum computation. Since a waveguide has a lowest cutoff frequency while a Fabry-Perot cavity or a confocal cavity has none, the spontaneous emission of excited atoms will be forbidden in an ideal waveguide with an appropriate size. To avoid the influence of the non-ideal conducting walls on the atom in a realistic waveguide, which will lead to decoherence, we suggest that the waveguide should be coated by a thin film of transparent insulating medium. In our method, the quantum information is represented by a multi-level atom or molecule; any two of its levels can be used to represent a qubit in principle. Our method greatly extends the choice of the material to be used in the realization of quantum computation, and it can be used in most schemes to reduce the decoherence caused by spontaneous emission.     

Steady bipartite coherence induced by non-equilibrium environment

We study the steady state of two coupled two-level atoms interacting with a non-equilibrium environment that consists of two heat baths at different temperatures. Specifically, we analyze four cases with respect to the configuration about the interactions between atoms and heat baths. Using secular approximation, the conventional master equation usually neglects steady-state coherence, even when the system is coupled with a non-equilibrium environment. When employing the master equation with no secular approximation, we find that the system coherence in our model, denoted by the off-diagonal terms in the reduced density matrix spanned by the eigenvectors of the system Hamiltonian, would survive after a long-time decoherence evolution. The absolute value of residual coherence in the system relies on different configurations of interaction channels between the system and the heat baths. We find that a large steady quantum coherence term can be achieved when the two atoms are resonant. The absolute value of quantum coherence decreases in the presence of additional atom-bath interaction channels. Our work sheds new light on the mechanism of steady-state coherence in microscopic quantum systems in non-equilibrium environments.     

Anomalous decoherence effect in a quantum bath

Decoherence of quantum objects in noisy environments is important in quantum sciences and technologies. It is generally believed that different processes coupled to the same noise source have similar decoherence behaviors and stronger noises cause faster decoherence. Here we show that in a quantum bath, the case can be the opposite. We predict that the multitransition of a nitrogen-vacancy center spin-1 in diamond can have longer coherence time than the single transitions, even though the former suffers twice stronger noises from the nuclear spin bath than the latter. This anomalous decoherence effect is due to manipulation of the bath evolution via flips of the center spin.     

Effects of Intrinsic Decoherence on Information Transport in a Spin Chain

Considering Milburn＇s intrinsic decoherence effect on quantum communication through a spin chain, we show that the transfer quality for quantum state and entanglement will obviously decrease with the increasing intrinsic decoherence rate. Some odd chains are much higher than even ones for the state transfer efficiency. The state transfer of a long chain is very sensitive to the intrinsic decoherence, which turns out to be an obstacle for information transport.     

Controlling quantum discord dynamics in cavity QED systems by applying a classical driving field with phase decoherence

We investigate a two-level atom interacting with a quantized cavity field and a classical driving field in the presence of phase decoherence and find that a stationary quantum discord can arise in the interaction of the atom and cavity field as the time turns to infinity.We also find that the stationary quantum discord can be increased by applying a classical driving field.Furthermore,we explore the quantum discord dynamics of two identical non-interacting two-level atoms independently interacting with a quantized cavity field and a classical driving field in the presence of phase decoherence.Results show that the quantum discord between two atoms is more robust than entanglement under phase decoherence and the classical driving field can help to improve the amount of quantum discord of the two atoms.