A study on quantum discord sudden changes

For open quantum systems, quantum discord sudden changes (QDSCs) may appear in the dynamics instead of sudden death appears in quantum entanglement. In this paper, we study the dynamics of quantum discord and explore the relation between the entanglement sudden death and QDSC. We find that the QDSC is sensitive to the initial states and the excitation number in the total system (the qubits  +  environment). By using the geometric measurement of the quantum correlation, the geometric interpretation for the QDSC is presented and the condition for the emergence of the QDSC is given. Furthermore, we observe that the entanglement sudden death and QDSC do not have one to one correspondence for open quantum systems.     

Global quantum discord and quantum phase transition in XY model

We study the relationship between the behavior of global quantum correlations and quantum phase transitions in XY model. We find that the two kinds of phase transitions in the studied model can be characterized by the features of global quantum discord (GQD) and the corresponding quantum correlations. We demonstrate that the maximum of the sum of all the nearest neighbor bipartite GQDs is effective and accurate for signaling the Ising quantum phase transition, in contrast, the sudden change of GQD is very suitable for characterizing another phase transition in the XY model. This may shed lights on the study of properties of quantum correlations in different quantum phases.     

Quantum discord dynamics of two-qubit system in a quantum spin environment

We study the dynamics of quantum discord of two-qubit system in a quantum spin environment at finite temperature in the thermodynamics limit. Special attention is paid to the difference between the entanglement and quantum discord when considering the influences of the environment temperature and the initial system states. We show that in the same range of the physical parameters, when the system states behave no entanglement or entanglement sudden death, the quantum discord keeps nonzero. So the quantum discord is more robust than entanglement under this decoherence environment. Furthermore, we also illustrate that we can tune the parameters related to the system and the environment to suppress the decay of quantum discord.     

A symmetric geometric measure and the dynamics of quantum discord

A symmetric measure of quantum correlation based on the Hilbert-Schmidt distance is presented in this paper. For two-qubit states, we considerably simplify the optimization procedure so that numerical evaluation can be performed efficiently. Analytical expressions for the quantum correlation are attained for some special states. We further investigate the dynamics of quantum correlation of the system qubits in the presence of independent dissipative environments. Several nontrivial aspects are demonstrated. We find that the quantum correlation can increase even if the system state is suffering from dissipative noise. Sudden changes occur, even twice, in the time evolution of quantum correlation. There exists a certain correspondence between the evolution of quantum correlation in the systems and that in the environments, and the quantum correlation in the systems will be transferred into the environments completely and asymptotically.     

Effect of excess noise on continuous variable entanglement sudden death and Gaussian quantum discord

A symmetric two-mode Gaussian entangled state is used to investigate the effect of excess noise on entanglement sudden death and Gaussian quantum discord with continuous variables. The results show that the excess noise in the channel can lead to entanglement sudden death of a symmetric two-mode Gaussian entangled state, while Gaussian quantum discord never vanishes. As a practical application, the security of a quantum key distribution （QKD） scheme based on a symmetric two-mode Gaussian entangled state against collective Gaussian attacks is analyzed. The calculation results show that the secret key cannot be distilled when entanglement vanishes and only quantum discord exists in such a QKD scheme.     

基于腔QED系统的几何量子失谐及其传送

研究了基于腔量子电动力学（腔QED）系统的几何量子失谐及其传送。该系统包括两个独立的子系统,每个子系统由两个二能级原子与单模腔共振相互作用。结果表明,所有初始存储在原子A1A2中的几何量子失谐最终被转移到原子B1B2和腔C1C2。同时,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐在该量子系统中可以发生猝死（DSD）以及纠缠突然死亡（ESD）。但是,在该量子系统中几何量子失谐不能完全由于原子的自发辐射和腔衰减而复活。此外,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2几何量子失谐的量,取决于其纯度p,并与其成比例,p的值越小,几何失谐越小。它也表明,在原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐将经历振荡衰减并最终衰减到零。不过,在没有原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐却没有衰减。     

基于腔QED系统的几何量子失谐及其传送

研究了基于腔量子电动力学（腔QED）系统的几何量子失谐及其传送。该系统包括两个独立的子系统,每个子系统由两个二能级原子与单模腔共振相互作用。结果表明,所有初始存储在原子A1A2中的几何量子失谐最终被转移到原子B1B2和腔C1C2。同时,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐在该量子系统中可以发生猝死（DSD）以及纠缠突然死亡（ESD）。但是,在该量子系统中几何量子失谐不能完全由于原子的自发辐射和腔衰减而复活。此外,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2几何量子失谐的量,取决于其纯度p,并与其成比例,p的值越小,几何失谐越小。它也表明,在原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐将经历振荡衰减并最终衰减到零。不过,在没有原子自发辐射和腔衰减的情况下,原子A1A2 ,B1B2和腔C1C2的几何量子失谐却没有衰减。     

Characterizing the dynamics of quantum discord under phase damping with POVM measurements

In the analysis of quantum discord, the minimization of average entropy traditionally involved over orthogonal projective measurements may be attained at more optimal decompositions by using the positive-operator-valued measure(POVM)measurements. Taking advantage of the quantum steering ellipsoid in combination with three-element POVM optimization,we show that, for a family of two-qubit X states locally interacting with Markovian non-dissipative environments, the decay rates of quantum discord show smooth dynamical evolutions without any sudden change. This is in contrast to two-element orthogonal projective measurements, in which case the sudden change of the decay rates of quantum and classical decoherences may be a common phenomenon. Notwithstanding this, we find that a subset of X states(including the Bell diagonal states) involving POVM optimization can still preserve the sudden change character as usual.     

Phase effect on dynamics of quantum discord modulated by interaction between qubits

We study the effects of the interaction strength and the initial phase on the dynamics of quantum discord in a twoqubit system under both spontaneous emission and dephasing noisy channels. It is shown that the time evolution of quantum discord displays quicker oscillations with increasing inter-qubit interaction strength but the effect of the initial phase closely depends on the interaction between the qubits. Only for non-zero inter-qubit interaction cases, the evolution of quantum discord is affected by the initial phase and its oscillating amplitude increases with increasing initial phase. A comparison between evolutions of quantum discord and entanglement is also made.     

双原子Jaynes-Cummings模型下的量子失协和超量子失协

在量子信息的研究中,量子关联起着至关重要的作用,而弱测量对揭示量子关联有重要作用.在双原子Jaynes-Cummings(JC)模型下,分析了量子失协和超量子失协两种量子关联随时间演化过程中的差异性,以及测量强度参数、平均光子数在决定量子关联和影响其动态演化的一般作用.结果表明,弱测量可以更好地揭示量子关联,不仅可以更好地揭示量子关联的复活,还可以获得更大的关联最大值;平均光子数会有效影响两种关联的消失与复活,平均光子数越大,量子关联的消失与复活越快;平均光子数较大时,使用旋波近似得到的弱测量下的超量子失协比强测量下的量子失协与实际误差更小.     

Tavis-Cummings模型中的几何量子失协特性

采用几何量子失协的计算方法,通过改变两原子初始状态、腔内光子数和偶极-偶极相互作用强度,研究了Tavis-Cummings模型中的几何量子失协特性.结果表明:几何量子失协都是随时间周期性振荡的,选取适当的初态可以使两原子一直保持失协状态,增加腔内光子数和偶极相互作用对几何量子失协有积极的影响.     

Asymmetry of bipartite quantum discord

It is known from the analysis of the density matrix for bipartite systems that the quantum discord (as a measure of quantum correlations) depends on the particular subsystem chosen for the projective measurements. We study asymmetry of the discord in a simple physical model of two spin-1/2 particles with the dipole-dipole interaction governed by the XY Hamiltonian in the inhomogeneous magnetic field. The dependence of the above discord asymmetry on the Larmor frequencies at both T = 0 (the ground state) and T > 0 has been investigated. It is demonstrated, in particular, that the asymmetry is negligible for high temperatures but it may become significant with a decrease in the temperature.     

Dynamics of quantum discord in photonic crystals

We study the system-reservoir dynamics of quantum correlations in the decoherence phenomenon within a two-qubit composite system interacting with a common photonic band-gap (PBG) environment. We compare the dynamics of entanglement with that of quantum discord. By analytical and numerical analyses we find that, the quantum discord can maintain a constant value in the long-time limit even when entanglement suddenly disappears. We also show that the detuning conditions play a crucial role in controlling quantum correlations of the two-qubit system. In PBG environment, the stationary quantum discord can be attained in well-controlled conditions. Our results have lots of potential applications to quantum information processing in nanostructured materials.     

Entanglement irreversibility from quantum discord and quantum deficit

We relate the problem of irreversibility of entanglement with the recently defined measures of quantum correlation--quantum discord and one-way quantum deficit. We show that the entanglement of formation is always strictly larger than the coherent information and the entanglement cost is also larger in most cases. We prove irreversibility of entanglement under local operations and classical communication for a family of entangled states. This family is a generalization of the maximally correlated states for which we also give an analytic expression for the distillable entanglement, the relative entropy of entanglement, the distillable secret key, and the quantum discord.     

Long-range quantum discord in critical spin systems

We show that quantum correlations as quantified by quantum discord can characterize quantum phase transitions by exhibiting nontrivial long-range decay as a function of distance in spin systems. This is rather different from the behavior of pairwise entanglement, which is typically short-ranged even in critical systems. In particular, we find a clear change in the decay rate of quantum discord as the system crosses a quantum critical point. We illustrate this phenomenon for first-order, second-order, and infinite-order quantum phase transitions, indicating that pairwise quantum discord is an appealing quantum correlation function for condensed matter systems.     

Geometric discord of tripartite quantum systems

We study the quantification of geometric discord for tripartite quantum systems. Firstly, we obtain the analytic formula of geometric discord for tripartite pure states. It is already known that the geometric discord of pure states reduces to the geometric entanglement in bipartite systems, the results presented here show that this property is no longer true in tripartite systems. Furthermore, we provide an operational meaning for tripartite geometric discord by linking it to quantum state discr...     

Dynamics of quantum discord in the purification process

We investigate the dynamics of quantum discord during the purification process. In the case of Werner states, it is shown that quantum discord is increased after a round of purification protocol. Furthermore, quantum mutual information and classical correlation is also increased during this process. We also give an analytic expression for a class of higher dimensional states which have additive quantum discord.     

Linking quantum discord to entanglement in a measurement

We show that a von Neumann measurement on a part of a composite quantum system unavoidably creates distillable entanglement between the measurement apparatus and the system if the state has nonzero quantum discord. The minimal distillable entanglement is equal to the one-way information deficit. The quantum discord is shown to be equal to the minimal partial distillable entanglement that is the part of entanglement which is lost, when we ignore the subsystem which is not measured. We then show that any entanglement measure corresponds to some measure of quantum correlations. This powerful correspondence also yields necessary properties for quantum correlations. We generalize the results to multipartite measurements on a part of the system and on the total system.