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arXiv:0911.3122 · Advances in Mathematical Physics

Resonant Perturbation Theory of Decoherence and Relaxation of Quantum Bits

Marco Merkli, G. P. Berman, Israel Michael Sigal

Published Jan 1, 2010• 4 citations
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Abstract

We describe our recent results on the resonant perturbation theory of decoherence and relaxation for quantum systems with many qubits. The approach represents a rigorous analysis of the phenomenon of decoherence and relaxation for general N‐level systems coupled to reservoirs of bosonic fields. We derive a representation of the reduced dynamics valid for all times t ≥ 0 and for small but fixed interaction strength. Our approach does not involve master equation approximations and applies to a wide variety of systems which are not explicitly solvable.

DOI
10.1155/2010/169710

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We describe our recent results on the resonant perturbation theory of decoherence and relaxation for quantum systems with many qubits. The approach represents a rigorous analysis of the phenomenon of decoherence and relaxation for general N‐level systems coupled to reservoirs of bosonic fields. We derive a representation of the reduced dynamics valid for all times t ≥ 0 and for small but fixed interaction strength. Our approach does not involve master equation approximations and applies to a wide variety of systems which are not explicitly solvable.
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We analyze rigorously the dynamics of the entanglement between two qubits which interact only through collective and local environments. Our approach is based on the resonance perturbation theory which assumes a small interaction between the qubits and the environments. The main advantage of our approach is that the expressions for (i) characteristic time-scales, such as decoherence, disentanglement, and relaxation, and (ii) observables are not limited by finite times. We introduce a new classification of decoherence times based on clustering of the reduced density matrix elements. The characteristic dynamical properties such as creation and decay of entanglement are examined. We also discuss possible applications of our results for superconducting quantum computation and quantum measurement technologies.
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