Dynamics and quantum Zeno effect for a qubit in either a low- or high-frequency bath beyond the rotating-wave approximation

Abstract

We use a non-Markovian approach to study the decoherence dynamics of a qubit in either a low- or high-frequency bath modeling the qubit environment. This is done for two separate cases: either with measurements or without them. This approach is based on a unitary transformation and does not require the rotating-wave approximation. In the case without measurement, we show that, for low-frequency noise, the bath shifts the qubit energy toward higher energies (blue shift), while the ordinary high-frequency cutoff Ohmic bath shifts the qubit energy toward lower energies (red shift). In order to preserve the coherence of the qubit, we also investigate the dynamics of the qubit subject to measurements (quantum Zeno regime) in two cases: low- and high-frequency baths. For very frequent projective measurements, the low-frequency bath gives rise to the quantum anti-Zeno effect on the qubit. The quantum Zeno effect only occurs in the high-frequency-cutoff Ohmic bath, after counterrotating terms are considered. In the condition that the decay rate due to the two kinds of baths are equal under the Wigner-Weisskopf approximation, we find that without the approximation, for a high-frequency environment, the decay rate should be faster (without measurements) or slower (with frequent measurements, in the Zeno regime), compared to the low-frequency bath case. The experimental implementation of our results here could distinguish the type of bath (either a low- or high-frequency one) and protect the coherence of the qubit by modulating the dominant frequency of its environment.