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.     

Steady quantum coherence in non-equilibrium environment

We study the steady state of a three-level system in contact with a non-equilibrium environment, which is composed of two independent heat baths at different temperatures. We derive a master equation to describe the non-equilibrium process of the system. For the three level systems with two dipole transitions, i.e., the Λ$\Lambda$-type and V-type, we find that the interferences of two transitions in a non-equilibrium environment can give rise to non-vanishing steady quantum coherence, namely, there exist non-zero off-diagonal terms in the steady state density matrix (in the energy representation). Moreover, the non-vanishing off-diagonal terms increase with the temperature difference of the two heat baths. Such interferences of the transitions were usually omitted by secular approximation, for it was usually believed that they only take effect in short time behavior and do not affect the steady state. Here we show that, in non-equilibrium systems, such omission would lead to the neglect of the steady quantum coherence.     

两二能级原子在共同环境下的量子关联动力学

通过精确求解带有偶极-偶极相互作用的两个二能级原子与一个共同热库相互作用模型, 得到了两原子间量子纠缠和量子失谐(quantum discord)的解析表达式. 综合考虑了环境的非马尔可夫效应、原子间的偶极-偶极相互作用以及原子的本征频率同腔模中心频率之间的失谐量对两原子间量子纠缠和quantum discord的影响. 研究显示: 在非马尔可夫机制下, 且原子的本征频率与腔模中心频率是共振时, 当两原子初态处于纠缠态时, 原子间偶极-偶极相互作用可以显著抑制包括量子纠缠和quantum discord等量子关联的衰减, 更特别的是, 如果原子的本征频率同腔模中心频率有一定的失谐时, 利用原子间偶极-偶极相互作用可大大地延长两原子退纠缠的时间; 当两原子初态处于可分离态时, 从短时间来看, 原子间偶极-偶极相互作用可以提高量子纠缠和quantum discord振荡的振幅,而在长时间极限下, 原子间偶极-偶极相互作用不会改变量子纠缠和quantum discord达到的稳定值. 最后, 讨论了原子间偶极-偶极相互作用对量子纠缠和quantum discord动力学不同的影响. 关键词： 量子纠缠 量子失谐 共同环境 偶极-偶极相互作用     

耗散环境下三原子之间稳定纠缠的量子反馈控制

研究利用基于量子跳跃的量子反馈控制来产生三个二能级原子之间稳定的纠缠.考虑三个二能级原子处于一个严重耗散的单模光腔中,分别讨论了反馈作用在一个原子上和反馈同时作用在三个原子上的情况.研究发现:当反馈作用在某个原子上时,基于量子跳跃的量子反馈能够保护另外两个原子的最大纠缠态.当反馈同时作用在三个原子上时,选择合适的参数可以得到两个基矢张开的无消相干子空间,并且利用量子轨迹蒙特卡罗波函数方法,得到一定初始条件下系统最终可以演化到这个子空间中三个原子之间的最大纠缠态.     

Transfer of quantum correlations from light to atoms in the case of irreversible evolution

We consider the irreversible dynamics of two two-level atoms that interact with a bipartite broad-band electromagnetic field in an entangled state that forms a heat bath with a quantum correlation. Using Ito’s stochastic integration technique, we have derived a kinetic equation for atoms and found their steady state, which turns out to be inseparable and leads to a violation of Bell’s inequalities. The application of the atomic state found as a quantum channel for teleportation is considered. We have calculated the channel quality or fidelity that determines the possibilities for using the channel, in particular, characterizes its security. The process of teleportation by means of a quantum channel formed by an entangled heat bath is considered. Comparison of two (atomic and light) channels has shown that they have different properties with regard to separability and identical properties with regard to nonlocality. This means that nonlocality can be completely transferred from light to atoms.     

多光子Tavis-Cummings模型中两纠缠原子的纠缠演化特性

研究了两个纠缠的二能级原子通过多光子跃迁与单模相干光场进行耦合相互作用系统中两原子纠缠的演化特性.计算分析表明,两个原子之间的纠缠呈现出周期性的演化特性,初始两原子的状态、原子间的偶极相互作用、相干光场的参数以及跃迁光子数对两个原子的纠缠有着显著的影响;并发现两原子初始处于某最大纠缠态时,两原子会永远处于该最大纠缠态,因此这一类最大纠缠态可以作为一种量子信息存储器. 关键词： 量子纠缠 部分转置矩阵负本征值 纠缠原子 相干态     

Empirical State Determination of Entangled Two-Level Systems and Its Relation to Information Theory

Theoretical methods for empirical state determination of entangled two-level systems are analyzed in relation to information theory. We show that hidden variable theories would lead to a Shannon index of correlation between the entangled subsystems which is larger than that predicted by quantum mechanics. Canonical representations which have maximal correlations are treated by the use of Schmidt and Hilbert-Schmidt decomposition of the entangled states, including especially the Bohm singlet state and the GHZ entangled states. We show that quantum mechanics does not violate locality, but does violate realism.     

Ergodicity of Some Open Systems with Particle-Disk Interactions

We consider steady states for a class of mechanical systems with particle-disk interactions coupled to two, possibly unequal, heat baths. We show that any steady state that satisfies some natural assumptions is ergodic and absolutely continuous with respect to a Lebesgue-type reference measure and conclude that there exists at most one absolutely continuous steady state.     

Entropy evolvement properties in a system of Schrodinger cat state light field interacting with two entangled atoms

The field entropy can be regarded as a measurement of the degree of entanglement between the light field and the atoms of a system which is composed of two-level atoms initially in an entangled state interacting with the Schr\"{o}dinger cat state. The influences of the strength of light field and the phase angle between the two coherent states on the field entropy are discussed by using numerical calculations. The result shows that when the strength of light field is large enough the field entropy is not zero and the degrees of entanglement between the atoms and the three different states of the light fields are equal. When the strength of the light field is small, the degree of entanglement is maximum in a system of the two entangled atoms interacting with an odd coherent state; it is intermediate for a system of the two entangled atoms interacting with the Yurke--Stoler coherent state, and it is minimum in a system of the two entangled atoms interacting with an even coherent state.     

Non-equilibrium thermal entanglement for a three spin chain

The dynamics of a chain of three spins coupled at both ends to separate bosonic baths at different temperatures is studied. An exact analytical solution of the master equation in the Born-Markov approximation for the reduced density matrix of the chain is constructed. It is shown that for long times the reduced density matrix converges to the non-equilibrium steady state. Dynamical and steady state properties of the concurrence between the first and the last spin are studied.     

Tavis-Cummings模型中三体纠缠态纠缠量的演化特性

研究两个全同二能级原子与单模场相互作用的Tavis-Cummings模型中的量子纠缠.在场和两原子初始分别为真空场和纠缠或非纠缠状态下，得出体系状态将演化为三体近似W纠缠态.通过对纠缠量的计算得出：该三体近似W纠缠态纠缠量的演化特性将随三体所处的初始状态、原子间及原子与场间的耦合系数、失谐程度、原子反转粒子数的变化而变化.值得一提的是可得出原子间耦合作用强度对纠缠量的非线性效应，并且纠缠量展现出与原子反转粒子数一致的周期振荡现象. 关键词： W纠缠态 纠缠量 反转粒子数     

Entanglement Dynamics and Bell Violations of Two Atoms in Tavis-Cummings Model with Phase Decoherence

Considering the dipole-dipole coupling intensity between two atoms and the field in the Fock state, the entanglement dynamics between two atoms that are initially entangled in the system of two two-level atoms coupled to a single mode cavity in the presence of phase decoherence has been investigated. The two-atom entanglement appears with periodicity without considering phase decoherence, however, the phase decoherence causes the decay of entanglement between two atoms, with the increasing of the phase decoherence coefficient, the entanglement will quickly become a constant value, which is affected by the two-atom initial state. Meanwhile the two-atom quantum state will forever stay in the maximal entangled state when the initial state is proper even in the presence of phase decoherence. On the other hand, the Bell violation and the entanglement do not satisfy the monotonous relation, a large Bell violation implies the presence of a large amount of entanglement under certain conditions, while a large Bell violation corresponds to a little amount of entanglement in certain situations. However, the violation of Bell-CHSH inequality can reach the maximal value if two atoms are in the maximal entangled state, or vice versa.     

Multiparticle entanglement via resonant interaction between light and atomic ensembles

Multiparticle entangled states generated via interaction between narrowband light and an ensemble of identical two-level atoms are considered. Depending on the initial photon statistics, correlation between atoms and photons can give rise to entangled states of these systems. It is found that the state of any pair of atoms interacting with weak single-mode squeezed light is inseparable and robust against decay. Optical schemes for preparing entangled states of atomic ensembles by projective measurement are described.     

Strange Heat Flux in (An)Harmonic Networks

We study the heat transport in systems of coupled oscillators driven out of equilibrium by Gaussian heat baths. We illustrate with a few examples that such systems can exhibit “strange” transport phenomena. In particular, circulation of heat flux may appear in the steady state of a system of three oscillators only. This indicates that the direction of the heat fluxes can in general not be “guessed” from the temperatures of the heat baths. Although we primarily consider harmonic couplings between the oscillators, we explain why this strange behavior persists under weak anharmonic perturbations.     

Implementing multi-qubit entanglement of two-level systems inside a superconducting phase qubit

The interaction between a superconducting phase qubit and the two-level systems located inside the Josephson tunnel barrier is described by the XY model, which is naturally used to implement the i-SWAP gate. With this gate, we propose a scheme to efficiently generate multi-qubit entangled states of such two-level systems, including multipartite W state and cluster states. In particular, it is found that, with the help of the phase qubit, the entanglement witness can be used to efficiently detect the produced multi-qubit entangled states.     

Tavis-Cummings模型中两纠缠原子纠缠的演化特性

研究了两个纠缠的两能级原子与单模粒子数场进行相互作用系统中两原子的纠缠演化.结果表明：两个原子之间的纠缠呈现出周期性的演化特性，初始两原子的状态、原子之间的偶极相互作用和粒子数场对腔中两个原子的纠缠有着显著的影响.发现适当选择原子的初态，两原子会永远处于最大纠缠态. 关键词： 量子纠缠 偶极-偶极相互作用 部分转置矩阵负本征值 纠缠原子     

Preparation of Two-atoms Entangled States via the Quantized Cavity Field Resonant Interaction with Atom

A scheme for preparation of the two-atoms entangled state via the resonant interaction of a quantized cavity field with atom is presented. It is injected an two-level atom initially prepared in the superposition of the ground state and excited state through the cavity prepared in the vacuum state. The atom passing through the cavity creates atom-field entanglement. The second two-level atom prepared in the ground state is injected into the cavity at different angle. After the interaction with the cavity field, the two-atoms entangled state is produced and the cavity field is still in the vacuun state. Comparing with the existing schemes, ours is easier to realize experimently.     

Stark效应对量子纠缠信息交换传递的影响

用多个“二能级原子与单模光场”组成的联合物理模型,考虑Stark效应后,推导了该系统的态矢演化式,得到光场纠缠度的数值计算结果.讨论了Stark效应和初始场强对量子纠缠信息交换传递的影响.结果发现,在一定条件下,原子纠缠态与光场纠缠态之间可以转化,实现了量子纠缠信息的交换传递,且Stark效应和初始场强对此过程有着显著的影响:光场的纠缠程度随着初始场强的增强而增大;在强场条件下,光场纠缠度出现崩塌-回复现象.Stark移位参量越大,光场纠缠度振荡越剧烈,说明Stark效应破坏了光场纠缠程度的稳定性.     

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.     

Entanglement between two qubits interacting with a slightly detuned thermal field

In this paper, we investigate entanglement between two two-level atoms when they simultaneously interact with a single-mode thermal field in the strong-coupling regime. We show that a slight detuning between the atomic transition frequency and the field frequency might cause high entanglement between the atoms. More interestingly, if we choose the detuning appropriately, both atoms would somehow get entangled even when both atoms are initially in the excited state.