0000000000708693
AUTHOR
Bruno Bellomo
Quantum synchronization as a local signature of super- and subradiance
We study the relationship between the collective phenomena of super- and subradiance and spontaneous synchronization of quantum systems. To this aim we revisit the case of two detuned qubits interacting through a pure dissipative bosonic environment, which contains the minimal ingredients for our analysis. By using the Liouville formalism, we are able to find analytically the ultimate connection between these phenomena. We find that dynamical synchronization is due to the presence of longstanding coherence between the ground state of the system and the subradiant state. We finally show that, under pure dissipation, the emergence of spontaneous synchronization and of subradiant emission occu…
Remote entanglement distribution in a quantum network via multinode indistinguishability of photons
Quantum networking relies on entanglement distribution between distant nodes, typically realized by swapping procedures. However, entanglement swapping is a demanding task in practice, mainly because of limited effectiveness of entangled photon sources and Bell-state measurements necessary to realize the process. Here we experimentally activate a remote distribution of two-photon polarization entanglement superseding the need for initial entangled pairs and traditional Bell-state measurements. This alternative procedure is accomplished thanks to the controlled spatial indistinguishability of four independent photons in three separated nodes of the network, which enables us to perform locali…
Work extraction exploiting thermalization with a single bath
We propose a protocol which exploits the collective thermalisation of a bipartite system to extract work from another system. The protocol is based on a recently proposed work definition not requiring measurements and involving the presence of a single bath. A general description of the protocol is provided without specifying the characteristics of the bipartite system. We quantify both the extracted work and the ideal efficiency of the process also giving a maximum bound to the extracted work. Then, we apply the protocol to the case when the bipartite system is governed by the Rabi Hamiltonian while using a zero temperature bath. For very strong couplings, an extraction of work comparable …
Dynamics of Non Classically Reproducible Entanglement
We investigate when the quantum correlations of a bipartite system, under the influence of environments with memory, are not reproducible with certainty by a classical local hidden variable model. To this purpose, we compare the dynamics of a Bell inequality with that of entanglement, as measured by concurrence. We find time regions when Bell inequality is not violated even in correspondence to high values of concurrence (up to $\approx 0.8$). We also suggest that these results may be observed by adopting a modification of a recent experimental optical setup. These findings indicate that even highly entangled systems cannot be exploited with certainty in contexts where the non classical rep…
Loss of coherence and dressing in QED
The dynamics of a free charged particle, initially described by a coherent wave packet, interacting with an environment, i.e. the electromagnetic field characterized by a temperature $T$, is studied. Using the dipole approximation the exact expressions for the evolution of the reduced density matrix both in momentum and configuration space and the vacuum and the thermal contribution to decoherence, are obtained. The time behaviour of the coherence lengths in the two representations are given. Through the analysis of the dynamic of the field structure associated to the particle the vacuum contribution is shown to be linked to the birth of correlations between the single momentum components o…
Dynamics and extraction of quantum discord in a multipartite open system
We consider a multipartite system consisting of two noninteracting qubits each embedded in a single-mode leaky cavity, in turn connected to an external bosonic reservoir. Initially, we take the two qubits in an entangled state while the cavities and the reservoirs have zero photons. We investigate, in this six-partite quantum system, the transfer of quantum discord from the qubits to the cavities and reservoirs. We show that this transfer occurs also when the cavities are not entangled. Moreover, we discuss how quantum discord can be extracted from the cavities and transferred to distant systems by traveling leaking photons, using the input-output theory.
Indistinguishability as a quantum information resource by localized measurements
Quantum networks are typically made of identical subsystems. Exploiting indistinguishability as a direct quantum resource would thus be highly desirable. We show this is achievable by spatially localized measurements, enabling teleportation and entanglement swapping protocols.
Simple scheme for extracting work with a single bath
We propose a simple protocol exploiting the thermalization of a storage bipartite system S to extract work from a resource system R. The protocol is based on a recent work definition involving only a single bath. A general description of the protocol is provided without specifying the characteristics of S. We quantify both the extracted work and the ideal efficiency of the process, also giving maximum bounds for them. Then, we apply the protocol to two cases: two interacting qubits and the Rabi model. In both cases, for very strong couplings, an extraction of work comparable with the bare energies of the subsystems of S is obtained and its peak is reached for finite values of the bath tempe…
Unified view of correlations using the square-norm distance
The distance between a quantum state and its closest state not having a certain property has been used to quantify the amount of correlations corresponding to that property. This approach allows a unified view of the various kinds of correlations present in a quantum system. In particular, using relative entropy as a distance measure, total correlations can be meaningfully separated into a quantum part and a classical part thanks to an additive relation involving only the distances between states. Here we investigate a unified view of correlations using as a distance measure the square norm, which has already been used to define the so-called geometric quantum discord. We thus also consider…
Activating remote entanglement in a quantum network by local counting of identical particles
Quantum information and communication processing within quantum networks usually employs identical particles. Despite this, the physical role of quantum statistical nature of particles in large-scale networks remains elusive. Here, we show that just the indistinguishability of fermions makes it possible a new mechanism of entanglement transfer in many-node quantum networks. This process activates remote entanglement among distant sites, which do not share a common past, by only locally counting identical particles and classical communication. These results constitute the key achievement of the present technique and open the way to a more stable multistage transfer of nonlocal quantum correl…
Generation of minimum energy entangled states
Quantum technologies exploiting bipartite entanglement could be made more efficient by using states having the minimum amount of energy for a given entanglement degree. Here, we study how to generate these states in the case of a bipartite system of arbitrary finite dimension either by applying a unitary transformation to its ground state or through a zero-temperature thermalization protocol based on turning on and off a suitable interaction term between the subsystems. In particular, we explicitly identify three possible unitary operators and five possible interaction terms. On the one hand, two of the three unitary transformations turn out to be easily decomposable in terms of local eleme…
An optimized Bell test in a dynamical system
The best realization of a Bell test depends on parameters linked to experimental settings. We report, for a class of two-qubit states, some optimized parameters that are useful to perform an optimized Bell test in a dynamical context. The time evolution of these optimized parameters, that present finite jumps, is investigated for two qubits in separated cavities.
Revival of quantum correlations without system-environment back-action
Revivals of quantum correlations have often been explained in terms of back-action on quantum systems by their quantum environment(s). Here we consider a system of two independently evolving qubits, each locally interacting with a classical random external field. The environments of the qubits are also independent, and there is no back-action on the qubits. Nevertheless, entanglement, quantum discord and classical correlations between the two qubits may revive in this model. We explain the revivals in terms of correlations in a classical-quantum state of the environments and the qubits. Although classical states cannot store entanglement on their own, they can play a role in storing and rev…
Non-markovian effects on the dynamics of entanglement.
A procedure that allows to obtain the dynamics of $N$ independent bodies each locally interacting with its own reservoir is presented. It relies on the knowledge of single body dynamics and it is valid for any form of environment noise. It is then applied to the study of non-Markovian dynamics of two independent qubits, each locally interacting with a zero temperature reservoir. It is shown that, although no interaction is present or mediated between the qubits, there is a revival of their entanglement, after a finite period of time of its complete disappearance.
Two-qubit quantum correlations versus single-qubit population
It is considered a system made by two noninteracting qubits, initially entangled, embedded in zero-temperature bosonic independent environments. It is shown that different forms of quantum correlations for two qubits can be expressed in terms of excited state population of each single qubit. These relations are explicitly given for both entanglement and Bell function. This permits to evidence regions where there is entanglement without violation of a Bell inequality, then showing that entanglement does not necessarily witness the presence of quantum correlations nonreproducible by a classical local model, as identified by Bell inequality violations. We finally report the explicit time depen…
Wave Packet Decoherence in Momentum Space
We consider the development of decoherence between the momentum components of a wave packet of a non relativistic charged particle interacting linearly with the electromagnetic field in equilibrium at temperature T. By adopting from the beginning the electric dipole approximation the Hamiltonian assumes a form analogous to the one used in the context of quantum computing for an ensemble of two level systems. We obtain the characteristic vacuum and thermal decoherence times and we show that decoherence between different momenta is due to the onset of a correlation between each momentum component and the associated transverse photons that are also responsible of mass renormalization.
$N$ identical particles and one particle to entangle them all
In quantum information W states are a central class of multipartite entangled states because of their robustness against noise and use in many quantum processes. Their generation however remains a demanding task whose difficulty increases with the number of particles. We report a simple scalable conceptual scheme where a single particle in an ancilla mode works as entanglement catalyst of W state for other $N$ separated identical particles. A crucial novel aspect of the scheme, which exploits basically spatial indistinguishability, is its universality, being applicable without essential changes to both bosons and fermions. Our proposal represents a new paradigm within experimental preparati…
Connection among entanglement, mixedness, and nonlocality in a dynamical context
We investigate the dynamical relations among entanglement, mixedness and nonlocality, quantifed by concurrence C, purity P and maximum of Bell function B, respectively, in a system of two qubits in a common structured reservoir. To this aim we introduce the C-P-B parameter space and analyze the time evolution of the point representative of the system state in such a space. The dynamical interplay among entanglement, mixedness and nonlocality strongly depends on the initial state of the system. For a two-excitation Bell state the representative point draws a multi-branch curve in the C-P-B space and we show that a closed relation among these quantifers does not hold. By extending the known r…
A tomographic approach to non-Markovian master equations
We propose a procedure based on symplectic tomography for reconstructing the unknown parameters of a convolutionless non-Markovian Gaussian noisy evolution. Whenever the time-dependent master equation coefficients are given as a function of some unknown time-independent parameters, we show that these parameters can be reconstructed by means of a finite number of tomograms. Two different approaches towards reconstruction, integral and differential, are presented and applied to a benchmark model made of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a bosonic bath. For this model the number of tomograms needed to retrieve the unknown parameters is explicitly computed.
Spatial decoherence in QED
We consider the dynamics of a charged free particle, initially described by a coherent wave packet, interacting with an electromagnetic field characterized by the temperature T, considered as the environment. We have used dipole approximation neglecting the potential vector quadratic term in the minimal coupling Hamiltonian. This leads to the loss of coherence in the momentum representation, described by the decay of the off diagonal elements of the particle reduced density matrix, while the populations remain constant. Here we extend the analysis to the coordinate representation. We compute the particle reduced density matrix in this basis, analyzing in particular the mixing of various ef…
Entanglement degradation in the solid state: Interplay of adiabatic and quantum noise
We study entanglement degradation of two non-interacting qubits subject to independent baths with broadband spectra typical of solid state nanodevices. We obtain the analytic form of the concurrence in the presence of adiabatic noise for classes of entangled initial states presently achievable in experiments. We find that adiabatic (low frequency) noise affects entanglement reduction analogously to pure dephasing noise. Due to quantum (high frequency) noise, entanglement is totally lost in a state-dependent finite time. The possibility to implement on-chip both local and entangling operations is briefly discussed.
Dynamics of quantum correlations in two-qubit systems within non-Markovian environments
Knowledge of the dynamical behavior of correlations with no classical counterpart, like entanglement, nonlocal correlations and quantum discord, in open quantum systems is of primary interest because of the possibility to exploit these correlations for quantum information tasks. Here we review some of the most recent results on the dynamics of correlations in bipartite systems embedded in non-Markovian environments that, with their memory effects, influence in a relevant way the system dynamics and appear to be more fundamental than the Markovian ones for practical purposes. Firstly, we review the phenomenon of entanglement revivals in a two-qubit system for both independent environments an…
Initial correlations effects on decoherence at zero temperature
We consider a free charged particle interacting with an electromagnetic bath at zero temperature. The dipole approximation is used to treat the bath wavelengths larger than the width of the particle wave packet. The effect of these wavelengths is described then by a linear Hamiltonian whose form is analogous to phenomenological Hamiltonians previously adopted to describe the free particle-bath interaction. We study how the time dependence of decoherence evolution is related with initial particle-bath correlations. We show that decoherence is related to the time dependent dressing of the particle. Moreover because decoherence induced by the T=0 bath is very rapid, we make some considerations…
Extraction of a squeezed state in a field mode via repeated measurements on an auxiliary quantum particle
The dynamics of a system, consisting of a particle initially in a Gaussian state interacting with a field mode, under the action of repeated measurements performed on the particle, is examined. It is shown that regardless of its initial state the field is distilled into a squeezed state. The dependence on the physical parameters of the dynamics is investigated.
Distillation by repeated measurements: Continuous spectrum case
Repeated measurements on a part of a bipartite system strongly affect the other part not measured, whose dynamics is regulated by an effective contracted evolution operator. When the spectrum of this operator is discrete, the latter system is driven into a pure state irrespective of the initial state, provided the spectrum satisfies certain conditions. We here show that even in the case of continuous spectrum an effective distillation can occur under rather general conditions. We confirm it by applying our formalism to a simple model.
Genuine quantum and classical correlations in multipartite systems
PACS numbers: 03.67.Mn, 03.65.Ud
Dynamics of geometric and entropic quantifiers of correlations in open quantum systems
We extend the Hilbert-Schmidt (square norm) distance, previously used to define the geometric quantum discord, to define also geometric quantifiers of total and classical correlations. We then compare the dynamics of geometric and entropic quantifiers of the different kinds of correlations in a non-Markovian open two-qubit system under local dephasing. We find that qualitative differences occur only for quantum discords. This is taken to imply that geometric and entropic discords are not, in general, equivalent in describing the dynamics of quantum correlations. We then show that also geometric and entropic quantifiers of total correlations present qualitative disagreements in the state spa…
Energy bounds for entangled states
We find the minimum and the maximum value for the local energy of an arbitrary bipartite system in a pure state for any given amount of entanglement. We also identify families of states reaching these lower or upper bounds. Moreover, we numerically study the probability of randomly generating pure states close to these energetic bounds finding, in all the considered configurations, that it is extremely low except for the two-qubit case and highly degenerate cases. Then, we show that the bounds found for pure states are valid also for mixed states. These results can be important in quantum technologies to design energetically more efficient entanglement generation protocols. Finally, we poin…
Frictional quantum decoherence
The dynamics associated with a measurement-based master equation for quantum Brownian motion are investigated. A scheme for obtaining time evolution from general initial conditions is derived. This is applied to analyze dissipation and decoherence in the evolution of both a Gaussian and a Schr\"{o}dinger cat initial state. Dependence on the diffusive terms present in the master equation is discussed with reference to both the coordinate and momentum representations.
Dynamics of correlations due to a phase noisy laser
We analyze the dynamics of various kinds of correlations present between two initially entangled independent qubits, each one subject to a local phase noisy laser. We give explicit expressions of the relevant quantifiers of correlations for the general case of single-qubit unital evolution, which includes the case of a phase noisy laser. Although the light field is treated as classical, we find that this model can describe revivals of quantum correlations. Two different dynamical regimes of decay of correlations occur, a Markovian one (exponential decay) and a non-Markovian one (oscillatory decay with revivals) depending on the values of system parameters. In particular, in the non-Markovia…
Entanglement dynamics of two independent cavity-embedded quantum dots
We investigate the dynamical behavior of entanglement in a system made by two solid-state emitters, as two quantum dots, embedded in two separated micro-cavities. In these solid-state systems, in addition to the coupling with the cavity mode, the emitter is coupled to a continuum of leaky modes providing additional losses and it is also subject to a phonon-induced pure dephasing mechanism. We model this physical configuration as a multipartite system composed by two independent parts each containing a qubit embedded in a single-mode cavity, exposed to cavity losses, spontaneous emission and pure dephasing. We study the time evolution of entanglement of this multipartite open system finally …
Two-qubit entanglement dynamics for two different non-Markovian environments
We study the time behavior of entanglement between two noninteracting qubits each immersed in its own environment for two different non-Markovian conditions: a high-$Q$ cavity slightly off-resonant with the qubit transition frequency and a nonperfect photonic band-gap, respectively. We find that revivals and retardation of entanglement loss may occur by adjusting the cavity-qubit detuning, in the first case, while partial entanglement trapping occurs in non-ideal photonic-band gap.
Entanglement dynamics of two independent qubits in environments with and without memory
A procedure to obtain the dynamics of $N$ independent qudits ($d$-level systems) each interacting with its own reservoir, for any arbitrary initial state, is presented. This is then applied to study the dynamics of the entanglement of two qubits, initially in an extended Werner-like mixed state with each of them in a zero temperature non-Markovian environment. The dependence of the entanglement dynamics on the purity and degree of entanglement of the initial states and on the amount of non-Markovianity is also given. This extends the previous work about non-Markovian effects on the two-qubit entanglement dynamics for initial Bell-like states [B. Bellomo \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \te…
Dissipation and decoherence in Brownian motion
We consider the evolution of a Brownian particle described by a measurement-based master equation. We derive the solution to this equation for general initial conditions and apply it to a Gaussian initial state. We analyse the effects of the diffusive terms, present in the master equation, and describe how these modify uncertainties and coherence length. This allows us to model dissipation and decoherence in quantum Brownian motion.
Entanglement trapping in structured environments
The entanglement dynamics of two independent qubits each embedded in a structured environment under conditions of inhibition of spontaneous emission is analyzed, showing entanglement trapping. We demonstrate that entanglement trapping can be used efficiently to prevent entanglement sudden death. For the case of realistic photonic band-gap materials, we show that high values of entanglement trapping can be achieved. This result is of both fundamental and applicative interest since it provides a physical situation where the entanglement can be preserved and manipulated, e.g. by Stark-shifting the qubit transition frequency outside and inside the gap.
Reconstruction of time-dependent coefficients: a check of approximation schemes for non-Markovian convolutionless dissipative generators
We propose a procedure to fully reconstruct the time-dependent coefficients of convolutionless non-Markovian dissipative generators via a finite number of experimental measurements. By combining a tomography based approach with a proper data sampling, our proposal allows to relate the time-dependent coefficients governing the dissipative evolution of a quantum system to experimentally accessible quantities. The proposed scheme not only provides a way to retrieve full information about potentially unknown dissipative coefficients but also, most valuably, can be employed as a reliable consistency test for the approximations involved in the theoretical derivation of a given non-Markovian convo…
Reconstruction of Markovian master equation parameters through symplectic tomography
In open quantum systems, phenomenological master equations with unknown parameters are often introduced. Here we propose a time-independent procedure based on quantum tomography to reconstruct the potentially unknown parameters of a wide class of Markovian master equations. According to our scheme, the system under investigation is initially prepared in a Gaussian state. At an arbitrary time t, in order to retrieve the unknown coefficients one needs to measure only a finite number (ten at maximum) of points along three time-independent tomograms. Due to the limited amount of measurements required, we expect our proposal to be especially suitable for experimental implementations.
Long-Time Preservation of Nonlocal Entanglement
We investigate how nonlocal entanglement, as identified by violations of a Bell inequality, may be preserved during the evolution. Our system consists of two qubits each embedded in a zero-temperature bosonic reservoir evolving independently and initially in an entangled mixed state. We show that the violation of the Bell inequality can be related to the single-qubit population of excited state in such a way that, by appropriately choosing structured environments that give rise to sufficiently high values of population trapping, long-time preservation of nonlocal entanglement can be correspondingly achieved.
DECAY OF NONLOCALITY DUE TO ADIABATIC AND QUANTUM NOISE IN THE SOLID STATE
We study the decay of quantum nonlocality, identified by the violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell inequality, for two noninteracting Josephson qubits subject to independent baths with broadband spectra typical of solid state nanodevices. The bath noise can be separated in an adiabatic (low-frequency) and in a quantum (high-frequency) part. We point out the qualitative different effects on quantum nonlocal correlations induced by adiabatic and quantum noise. A quantitaive analysis is performed for typical noise figures in Josephson systems. Finally we compare, for this system, the dynamics of nonlocal correlations and of entanglement.