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.     

Decoherence in generalized measurement and the quantum Zeno paradox

In the development of quantum mechanics, the evolution of a quantum system was a controversial item. The duality of unitary evolution and state reduction as proposed by John von Neumann was widely felt unsatisfactory. Among the various attempts to reconcile the two incompatible modes of dynamics, the model of decoherence has turned out rather convincing.     

Robustness of interferometric complementarity under decoherence

Interferometric complementarity is known to be one of the most nonclassical manifestations of the quantum formalism. It is commonly known as wave-particle duality and has been studied presently from the perspective of quantum information theory where wave and particle nature of a quantum system, called quanton, are characterised by coherence and path distinguishability respectively. We here consider the effect of noisy detectors on the complementarity relation. We report that by suitably choosing the initial quanton and the detector states along with the proper interactions between the quanton and the detectors, one can reduce the influence of noisy environment on complementarity, thereby pushing it towards saturation. To demonstrate this, three kinds of noise on detectors and their roles on the saturation of the complementarity relation are extensively studied. We also observe that for fixed values of parameters involved in the process, asymmetric quanton state posses low value of coherence while it can have a higher amount of distinguishability, and hence it has the potential to enhance the duality relation.     

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.     

Indirect decoherence in optical lattices and cold gases

The interaction of two–level atoms with a common heat bath leads to an effective interaction between the atoms, such that with time the internal degrees of the atoms become correlated or even entangled. If part of the atoms remain unobserved this creates additional indirect decoherence for the selected atoms, on top of the direct decoherence due to the interaction with the heat bath. I show that indirect decoherence can drastically increase and even dominate the decoherence for sufficiently large times. I investigate indirect decoherence through thermal black body radiation quantitatively for atoms trapped at regular positions in an optical lattice as well as for atoms at random positions in a cold gas, and show how indirect decoherence can be controlled or even suppressed through experimentally accessible parameters.     

Strong decoherence in quantum systems undergoing collisions

The decoherence problem in systems with continuous variables is discussed. It is shown that in quantum systems with momentum transfers in the Markovian approximation all pure states strongly decohere making quantum information processing much more complex than in the qubit case. The time scale of the effect is calculated.     

Entanglement entropy, decoherence, and quantum phase transitions of a dissipative two-level system

The concept of entanglement entropy appears in multiple contexts, from black hole physics to quantum information theory, where it measures the entanglement of quantum states. We investigate the entanglement entropy in a simple model, the spin-boson model, which describes a qubit (two-level system) interacting with a collection of harmonic oscillators that models the environment responsible for decoherence and dissipation. The entanglement entropy allows to make a precise unification between entanglement of the spin with its environment, decoherence, and quantum phase transitions. We derive exact analytical results which are confirmed by Numerical Renormalization Group arguments both for an ohmic and a subohmic bosonic bath. The entanglement entropy obeys universal scalings. We make comparisons with entanglement properties in the quantum Ising model and in the Dicke model. We also emphasize the possibility of measuring this entropy using charge qubits subject to electromagnetic noise; such measurements would provide an empirical proof of the existence of entanglement entropy.     

Maximally robust unravelings of quantum master equations

The stationary state of an open quantum system has infinitely many representations as an ensemble of pure states. We argue that the most natural ensemble is the most robust physically realizable ensemble. Robustness is quantified by the survival probability. Physical realization requires monitoring the environment to “unravel” the dissipative evolution.     

Relaxation and decoherence of orbital and spin degrees of freedom in quantum dots

The phonon induced mechanisms of relaxation/decoherence in quantum dots are analysed. A non-perturbative technique - a modification of the Davydov transformation appropriate to the localised particles is applied for solving the electron-phonon eigenvalue problem in a quantum dot at magnetic field presence. The decay rates for polaron relaxation via the anharmonicity induced channel are analysed in details. In particular, it is indicated that previous, of perturbative type, estimations of the anharminicity induced relaxation rates were too severe and after including the coherence effects they are of, at least, one order longer. The process of exciton dressing with phonons is also analysed as the unavoidable source of picosecond scale decoherence in optically driven nanostructures. A break-down of an instant Pauli spin blocking mechanism and a large enhancement of the Fröhlich constant for confined electrons are also addressed.     

Dissipative decoherence in the Grover algorithm

Using the methods of quantum trajectories we study effects of dissipative decoherence on the accuracy of the Grover quantum search algorithm. The dependence on the number of qubits and dissipation rate are determined and tested numerically with up to 16 qubits. As a result, our numerical and analytical studies give the universal law for decay of fidelity and probability of searched state which are induced by dissipative decoherence effects. This law is in agreement with the results obtained previously for quantum chaos algorithms.     

消除热库中量子位的消相干性

以二能级原子作为量子位,利用求解相互作用系统约化密度矩阵非对角元的方法,分别研究热库中量子位模型和依赖强度耦合Jaynes-Cummings模型的消相干特性.当外加驱动场消除消相干时,得到两种模型下驱动场必须满足的约束方程.?     

Parameter estimation by decoherence in the double-slit experiment

We discuss a parameter estimation problem using quantum decoherence in the double-slit interferometer. We consider a particle coupled to a massive scalar field after the particle passing through the double slit and solve the dynamics non-perturbatively for the coupling by the WKB approximation. This allows us to analyze the estimation problem which cannot be treated by master equation used in the research of quantum probe. In this model, the scalar field reduces the interference fringes of the particle and the fringe pattern depends on the field mass and coupling. To evaluate the contrast and the estimation precision obtained from the pattern, we introduce the interferometric visibility and the Fisher information matrix of the field mass and coupling. For the fringe pattern observed on the distant screen, we derive a simple relation between the visibility and the Fisher matrix. Also, focusing on the estimation precision of the mass, we find that the Fisher information characterizes the wave-particle duality in the double-slit interferometer.     

Dynamics of collective decoherence and thermalization

We analyze the dynamics of N interacting spins (quantum register) collectively coupled to a thermal environment. Each spin experiences the same environment interaction, consisting of an energy conserving and an energy exchange part.We find the decay rates of the reduced density matrix elements in the energy basis. We show that if the spins do not interact among each other, then the fastest decay rates of off-diagonal matrix elements induced by the energy conserving interaction is of order N², while that one induced by the energy exchange interaction is of the order N only. Moreover, the diagonal matrix elements approach their limiting values at a rate independent of N. For a general spin system the decay rates depend in a rather complicated (but explicit) way on the size N and the interaction between the spins.Our method is based on a dynamical quantum resonance theory valid for small, fixed values of the couplings. We do not make Markov-, Born- or weak coupling (van Hove) approximations.     

Phonon-induced decoherence and dissipation in donor-based charge qubits

We investigate the phonon-induced decoherence and dissipation in a donor-based charge quantum bit realized by the orbital states of an electron shared by two dopant ions which are implanted in a silicon host crystal. The dopant ions are taken from the group-V elements Bi, As, P, Sb. The excess electron is coupled to deformation potential acoustic phonons which dominate in the Si host. The particular geometry tailors a non-monotonous frequency distribution of the phonon modes. We determine the exact qubit dynamics under the influence of the phonons by employing the numerically exact quasi-adiabatic propagator path integral scheme thereby taking into account all bath-induced correlations. In particular, we have improved the scheme by completely eliminating the Trotter discretization error by a Hirsch-Fye extrapolation. By comparing the exact results to those of a Born-Markov approximation we find that the latter yields appropriate estimates for the decoherence and relaxation rates. However, noticeable quantitative corrections due to non-Markovian contributions appear.     

能级间同时存在衰变和跃迁时的消相干特性

二能级原子在量子信息中可视为量子位.本文基于约化密度矩阵理论,利用量子纯态和混合态分析方法,针对二能级原子能级间同时存在衰变和跃迁的情况,研究原子消相干特性.     

Resonance theory of decoherence and thermalization

We present a rigorous analysis of the phenomenon of decoherence for general N-level systems coupled to reservoirs. The latter are described by free massless bosonic fields. We apply our general results to the specific cases of the qubit and the quantum register. We compare our results with the explicitly solvable case of systems whose interaction with the environment does not allow for energy exchange (non-demolition, or energy conserving interactions). We suggest a new approach which applies to a wide variety of systems which are not explicitly solvable.     

A quantum trajectory description of decoherence

A complete theoretical treatment in many problems relevant to physics, chemistry, and biology requires considering the action of the environment over the system of interest. Usually the environment involves a relatively large number of degrees of freedom, this making the problem numerically intractable from a purely quantum-mechanical point of view. To overcome this drawback, a new class of quantum trajectories is proposed. These trajectories, based on the same grounds as Bohmian ones, are solely associated to the system reduced density matrix, since the evolution of the environment degrees of freedom is not considered explicitly. Within this approach, environment effects come into play through a time-dependent damping factor that appears in the system equations of motion. Apart from their evident computational advantage, this type of trajectories also results very insightful to understand the system decoherence. In particular, here we show the usefulness of these trajectories analyzing decoherence effects in interference phenomena, taking as a working model the well-known double-slit experiment.     

Dynamics and protection of tripartite quantum correlations in a thermal bath

We study the dynamics and protection of tripartite quantum correlations in terms of genuinely tripartite concurrence, lower bound of concurrence and tripartite geometric quantum discord in a three-qubit system interacting with independent thermal bath. By comparing the dynamics of entanglement with that of quantum discord for initial GHZ state and W state, we find that W state is more robust than GHZ state, and quantum discord performs better than entanglement against the decoherence induced by the thermal bath. When the bath temperature is low, for the initial GHZ state, combining weak measurement and measurement reversal is necessary for a successful protection of quantum correlations. But for the initial W state, the protection depends solely upon the measurement reversal. In addition, the protection cannot usually be realized irrespective of the initial states as the bath temperature increases.     

The effect of environment induced pure decoherence on the generalized Jaynes-Cummings model

We have studied the effect of environment induced pure decoherence on the generalized Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM). This generalized JCM is introduced to take into account both atom-field interaction and a class of spin-orbit interactions in the same framework. For generalized JCM with atom-field interaction, it is shown that along with the suppression of the oscillatory behaviour of the atomic and field variables, in the steady state, atomic energy is transferred to the field or vice versa through the dressed state coherence depending on the initial condition of the atom-field system and the model under consideration. It is also shown that initial Poissonian field acquires a sub-Poissonian character in the steady state and thus all the nonclassical properties are not erased by the decoherence in JCM. An interesting effect of this decoherence mechanism is that it affects the population and coherence properties of the individual subsystem in a different way. As an example of generalized JCM with spin-orbit interaction, the dynamics of spin of the hydrogen atom in a magnetic field is studied to show the effect of decoherence.     

The role of positronium decoherence in positron annihilation in matter

A small difference between the energies of the para-positronium (p-Ps) and ortho-positronium (o-Ps) states suggests the possibility of the superposition of p-Ps and o-Ps during the formation of positronium (Ps) from pre-Ps, terminating its migration in the matter in a void. It is shown that such a superposition decoheres in the basis of p-Ps and o-Ps. The decoherence time scale estimated here motivates a correction in the precise analysis of the positron annihilation lifetime spectra. More generally, the superposited Ps state should contribute to the theory of the evolution of positronium in matter.