We investigate the dynamics of entanglement between two continuous variable quantum systems. The model system consists of two atoms in a harmonic trap which are interacting by a simplified s-wave scattering. We show, that the dynamically created entanglement changes in a steplike manner. Moreover, we introduce local operators which allow us to violate a Bell-Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality adapted to the continuous variable case. The correlations show nonclassical behavior and almost reach the maximal quantum-mechanical value. This is interesting since the states prepared by this interaction are very different from any Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen--like state.
The coupling between the spin degrees of freedom and the orbital angular momentum has a profound effect on the properties of nuclei, atoms, and condensed-matter systems. Recently, synthetic gauge fields have been realized experimentally in neutral cold-atom systems, giving rise to a spin-orbit coupling term with ``strength''
kso. This paper investigates the interplay between the single-particle spin-orbit coupling term of Rashba type and the short-range two-body
s-wave interaction for cold atoms under external confinement. Specifically, we consider two different harmonically trapped two-atom systems. The first system consists of an atom with spin-orbit coupling that interacts with a structureless particle through a short-range two-body potential. The second system consists of two atoms that both feel the spin-orbit coupling term and that interact through a short-range two-body potential. Treating the spin-orbit term perturbatively, we determine the correction to the ground-state energy for various generic parameter combinations. Selected excited states are also treated. An important aspect of our study is that the perturbative treatment is not limited to small
s-wave scattering lengths but provides insights into the system behavior over a wide range of scattering lengths, including the strongly interacting unitary regime. We find that the interplay between the spin-orbit coupling term and the
s-wave interaction generically enters, depending on the exact parameter combinations of the
s-wave scattering lengths, at order
kso2 or
kso4 for the ground state and leads to a shift of the energy of either sign. While the absence of a term proportional to
kso follows straightforwardly from the functional form of the spin-orbit coupling term, the absence of a term proportional to
kso2 for certain parameter combinations is unexpected. The well-known fact that the spin-orbit coupling term couples the relative and center-of-mass degrees of freedom has interesting consequences for the trapped two-particle systems. For example, we find that, for certain parameter combinations, the spin-orbit coupling term turns sharp crossings into avoided crossings with an energy splitting proportional to
kso. Our perturbative results are confirmed by numerical calculations that expand the eigenfunctions of the two-particle Hamiltonian in terms of basis functions that contain explicitly correlated Gaussians.
We analyze the quantum entanglement between two interacting atoms trapped in a spherical harmonic potential. At ultracold temperature, ground-state entanglement is generated by the dominated
s-wave interaction. Based on a regularized pseudopotential Hamiltonian, we examine the quantum entanglement by performing the Schmidt decomposition of low-energy eigenfunctions. We indicate how the atoms are paired and quantify the entanglement as a function of a modified
s-wave scattering length inside the trap.
Hybrid entangled states generated, e.g., in a trapped-ion or atom-cavity system, have exactly one ebit of entanglement, but are not maximally entangled. We demonstrate this by showing that they violate, but, in general, not maximally, Bell's inequality due to Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt [Phys. Rev. Lett. 23, 880 (1969)]. These states are interesting in that they exhibit the entanglement between two distinct degrees of freedom (one is discrete and another is continuous). We then demonstrate these entangled states as a valuable resource in quantum-information processing including quantum teleportation, entanglement swapping and quantum computation with ``parity qubits.'' Our work establishes an interesting link between quantum-information protocols of discrete and continuous variables.
We investigate both theoretically and experimentally the dynamics of entanglement and nonlocality for two qubits immersed in a global pure dephasing environment. We demonstrate the existence of a class of states for which entanglement is forever frozen during the dynamics, even if the state of the system does evolve. At the same time nonlocal correlations, quantified by the violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality, either undergo sudden death or are trapped during the dynamics.
To date, most efforts to demonstrate quantum nonlocality have concentrated on systems of two (or very few) particles. It is, however, difficult in many experiments to address individual particles, making it hard to highlight the presence of nonlocality. We show how a natural setup with no access to individual particles allows one to violate the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality with many pairs, including in our analysis effects of noise and losses. We discuss the case of distinguishable and indistinguishable particles. Finally, a comparison of these two situations provides insight into the complex relation between entanglement and nonlocality.