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arXiv:1103.4546 · Physical Review A

Localization effects induced by decoherence in superpositions of many-spin quantum states

Gonzalo A. Álvarez, Dieter Suter

Published Jul 18, 2011• 35 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The spurious interaction of quantum systems with their environment known as decoherence leads, as a function of time, to a decay of coherence of superposition states. Since the interactions between system and environment are local, they can also cause a loss of spatial coherence: correlations between spatially distant parts of the system are lost and the equilibrium states can become localized. This effect limits the distance over which quantum information can be transmitted, e.g., along a spin chain. We investigate this issue in a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator, where it is possible to monitor the spreading of quantum information in a three-dimensional network: states that are initially localized on individual spins (qubits) spread under the influence of a suitable Hamiltonian apparently without limits. If we add a perturbation to this Hamiltonian, the spreading stops and the system reaches a limiting size, which becomes smaller as the strength of the perturbation increases. This limiting size appears to represent a dynamical equilibrium. We present a phenomenological model to describe these results.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.84.012320

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Spatially correlated decoherence: understanding and exploiting spatial noise correlations in quantum systems

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The challenge of making nano-scale quantum systems experimentally accessible is being overcome for an increasing diversity of systems by improved fabrication techniques and experimental control. Despite rapid progress, one of the main hindrances in all experiments is the difficulty of isolating the quantum system from the surrounding environment and its fluctuations. This experimental “noise” perturbs the quantum system, a process that is generally referred to as decoherence: the system slowly loses its distinguishing quantum features. In this thesis the effects of spatial correlations in the noise environment with a finite correlation length are investigated. The consequences for the experimental design of controlled quantum systems as well as the dynamics of solid state systems are presented. We utilize the Bloch-Redfield formalism, a Markovian master equation approach, which gives a close connection to the underpinning system-environment model. We show how to use this formalism to model any spatial correlation function of the noise environment. Using microscopic environmental models, several correlation functions are derived and their properties connected to the environmental parameters. Several phenomenological correlation functions are also studied and a mapping to the Lindblad master equation is presented, which provides a test of positivity for phenomenological models. For quantum transport through spin chains and networks, noise is generally detrimental. Spatial correlations however reduce the effect of dephasing noise and can reinstate the transport dynamics. The critical correlation length proves to be closely connected to the maximal packet width of one excitation in the transfer process. For dissipation noise, relaxation-free states emerge with spatial correlations. The decay of an excitation is therefore fundamentally modified into a fast decay towards an intermediate relaxation-reduced state and a subsequent decay to the ground state on a much longer time scale. In quantum metrology noise correlations have been observed in experiments with trapped ions, in which they limit the use of such experiments for metrology. Quantum advantage, i.e. a better precision scaling than the standard quantum limit has been proven impossible in the presence of uncorrelated Markovian noise only. We show that for certain optimized states the best possible quantum advantage, Heisenberg scaling, can be achieved in the presence of noise with a finite spatial decay of correlations. We furthermore identify how dephasing effects change and a topology dependence arises in strength with increasing correlation length for entangled states in a general way. Biological photosynthetic complexes have recently been found to potentially include quantum coherent dynamics, particularly in the process of transmitting an exciton from the point of creation to the reaction centre. We show how the formalism of spatially correlated decoherence adapts to this significantly different energy regime. Typical effects of decoherence in this field are presented and we show how the light-harvesting efficiency is influenced by spatial correlations in the noise. This thesis highlights the fundamental relevance of noise correlations to several fields of quantum physics and the importance of the efficient and comprehensive modelling techniques presented.

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Environmental effects on the evolution of a spin system in the context of the central spin problem, have been studied for more than 60 years. With the growing complexity of quantum information processors there is a new need to better understand and control the interactions of qubits with their environment. Decoherence is an apparent loss of quantum coherence of the central spin, which is the result of the coherent evolution of the central spin and its spin environment. This evolution may be understood as the consequence of local field fluctuations induced by heteronuclear dipolar interaction between the central spin and the environment spins and homonuclear dipolar interaction of spins in the environment. A complete theoretical description for the evolution of the central spin does not exist and numerical solutions are restricted to small spin environments. \n \nAnother way of looking at the central spin problem is to study the correlations between the central spin and the environment spins. In this method the evolution of the central spin is described with the dynamics of multi-spin correlations resulting from interactions of the central spin and the environment spins. \nUsing Multiple Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MQ NMR) techniques, we have designed experiments for the direct detection of multi-spin correlations between the central spin and environment spins. These experiments are used to observe the progress in production of correlations between the central spin and the environment. They reveal the multi-spin dynamics that underlies the decoherence process. \n \nThe central spin is initially uncorrelated with the environment and quantum information resides exclusively on it. After the interaction with the environment spins quantum information is shared in the form of correlated operators between the central spin and the environment. Using our experiments this flow of quantum information from the central spin to the environment and the quantum information content of the environment, can be quantified. Further, these experiments are used to gauge the sensitivity of correlation to perturbation in the environment, by observing the mixing dynamics of the multi-spin correlations. The Out-of-Time Correlation metric is used for the sensitivity measurements. We find that the dynamics of correlations in our system is better explained by the extent of information flow to the environment rather than the evolution time.

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Decoherence in Quantum Networks

Umer Farooq

The title of the present dissertation Decoherence in Quantum Network sounds very general and all-inclusive. Indeed it embraces two topics (decoherence and quantum network) from the area of Quantum Mechanics each of which is described in all respects by a huge literature developed in the last three decades [...]. Quantum decoherence, as the name lets it mean, is the mechanism that makes a quantum system loose its coherence properties, and with them the capability of giving rise to interference phenomena or to other interesting quantum effects [...]. The key idea promoted by decoherence is the insight that realistic quantum systems are never isolated, but are immersed in the surrounding environment and interact continuously with it [...]. As an example one may consider a two-level quantum system (i.e. a quantum bit, usually shortened with a terminology from information science to \\qubit" ) in contact with a wide environment. Hence, quantum systems are open systems, and continuously interact or exchange information with an external environment whose degrees of freedom are too numerous to be monitored. The resulting correlation between the system and the environment spoils quantum coherence and brings about the transition from a pure quantum state to a mixture of quantum state resulting a classical state. To describe decoherence different kind of approaches can be used (for example Master equation, random matrix, etc). A quantum network typically consists of a number of quantum objects (e.g., atoms, ions, quantum dots, cavities, etc.), to be referred to hereafter as the sites or the nodes of the network. They can interact and the interactions (or their correlations) will be usually described by the edges of a graph. Quantum networks can address different information processing tasks. For instance a quantum state can be transferred from qubit to qubit down a chain solely due to the interactions, that is according to the laws of quantum physics [...]. Quantum networks offer us new opportunities and phenomena as compared to classical networks. An extension to large scale of the idea of a quantum network could lead to a futurible quantum internet [...]. The study of networks has traditionally been the territory of graph theory [...], also with the advent of their quantum versions. Within simple quantum network model information processing is usually described by assuming perfect control of the underlying graph. However, this is not much realistic since randomness is often present and it leads to decoherence effects [...]. In contrast, the conservation of coherence is essential for any quantum information process [...], hence there is a persistent interest in decoherence effects in quantum networks, which motivate us to study models for describing such noisy effects. We consider a simple model of quantum network, employing qubits (spin-1/2 particles) attached to the nodes of an underlying graph and we study the simplest task, namely information storage (on a single and two qubits), when the graph randomly changes in time. Actually we randomly add edges to an initially disconnected graph according to the Gilbert model characterized by a weighting parameter ex [...] and in an identically and independent way at each time step. We find that by increasing ex the dynamics of relevant quantities like fidelity, entropy or concurrence, gradually transforms from damped to damped oscillatory and finally to purely oscillatory. That leads to the paper [see, Information dissipation in random quantum networks, by U. Farooq and S. Mancini, OSID 21(3), 1450004, 2014]. We also study a system composed by pairs of qubits attached to each node of a linear chain, a model that stems from quantum dot arrays. Here we use the approach of evolution with a stochastic Hamiltonian to describe the noisy effects. We then evaluate the effect of two most common disorders, namely exchange coupling and hyperfine interaction fluctuations, in adiabatic preparation of ground state in such model. We show that the adiabatic ground state preparation is highly robust against these disorders making the chain a good analog simulator. Moreover, we also study the adiabatic information transfer, using singlet-triplet states, across the chain. In contrast to ground state preparation the transfer mechanism is highly affected by disorders. This suggested that for communication tasks across such chains adiabatic evolution is not as effective and quantum quenches would be preferable. That leads to the paper [see, Adiabatic many-body state preparation and information transfer in quantum dot arrays, by U. Farooq, A. Bayat, S. Mancini and S. Bose Phys. Rev. B 91, 134303, 2015]. The present work is organized as follows. In chapter 1, we shall give a survey of the various types of approach which can be employed to analyse the dynamics of open quantum systems that leads to decoherence effects. In chapter 2, we shall give a general description about quantum network and its possible applications. In chapter 3, we shall discuss the problem of quantum state transfer in qubit network and shall give a brief overview of some scheme that enable nearly prefect state transfer. In chapter 4, we shall discuss singlet-triplet networks, that is networks having on each site a pair of (generally entangled) qubit. Then within this framework we propose a model stemming from quantum dot array. There we shall address the problem of ground state preparation and state transfer. Finally we shall describe the inherent entanglement of the ground state of strongly correlated systems can be exploited for both classical and quantum communications. In chapter 5, we shall propose a decoherence model for qubit networks based on edges representing XY interactions randomly added to a disconnected graph accordingly to a suitable probability distribution. In this way we shall describe dissipation of information initially localize in single or two qubits all over the network. In chapter 6 we shall model the noisy effects in the quantum dot array introduced in chapter 4 and investigate their consequences on the preparation of ground state and quantum state transfer mechanism. Finally we shall draw conclusions.

•May 11, 2015•0 citations
The spurious interaction of quantum systems with their environment known as decoherence leads, as a function of time, to a decay of coherence of superposition states. Since the interactions between system and environment are local, they can also cause a loss of spatial coherence: correlations between spatially distant parts of the system are lost and the equilibrium states can become localized. This effect limits the distance over which quantum information can be transmitted, e.g., along a spin chain. We investigate this issue in a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator, where it is possible to monitor the spreading of quantum information in a three-dimensional network: states that are initially localized on individual spins (qubits) spread under the influence of a suitable Hamiltonian apparently without limits. If we add a perturbation to this Hamiltonian, the spreading stops and the system reaches a limiting size, which becomes smaller as the strength of the perturbation increases. This limiting size appears to represent a dynamical equilibrium. We present a phenomenological model to describe these results.
The loss of coherence in quantum mechanical superposition states limits the time for which quantum information remains useful. Similarly, it limits the distance over which quantum information can be transmitted. Here, we investigate in a nuclear spin-based quantum simulator, the localization of the size of spin clusters that are generated by a Hamiltonian driving the transmission of information, while a variable-strength perturbation counteracts the spreading. We find that the system reaches a dynamic equilibrium size, which decreases with the square of the perturbation strength.
Quantum information processing often uses systems with dipolar interactions. Here a nuclear spin‐based quantum simulator is used to study the spreading of information in such a dipolar‐coupled system. While the information spreads with no apparent limits in the case of ideal dipolar couplings, additional perturbations limit the spreading, leading to localization. In previous work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 230403 (2010)], it was found that the system size reaches a dynamic equilibrium that decreases with the square of the perturbation strength. This work examines the impact of a disordered Hamiltonian with dipolar interactions. It shows that the expansion of the cluster of spins freezes in the presence of large disorder, reminiscent of Anderson localization of non‐interacting waves in a disordered potential.
We study the evolution of a system of two qubits, each of which interacts locally with a spin chain with nontrivial internal Hamiltonian. We present an exact solution to this problem and analyze the dependence of decoherence on the distance between the interaction sites. In the strong coupling regime we find that decoherence increases with increasing distance. In the weak coupling regime the dependence of decoherence with distance is not generic (i.e., it varies according to the initial state). Decoherence becomes independent of distance when the latter is over a saturation length lll. Numerical results for the Ising chain suggest that the saturation scale is related to the correlation length $\ensuremath{\xi}$. For strong coupling we display evidence of the existence of non-Markovian effects (such as environment-induced interactions between the qubits). As a consequence the system can undergo a quasiperiodic sequence of ``sudden deaths and revivals'' of entanglement, with a time scale related to the distance between qubits.
The challenge of making nano-scale quantum systems experimentally accessible is being overcome for an increasing diversity of systems by improved fabrication techniques and experimental control. Despite rapid progress, one of the main hindrances in all experiments is the difficulty of isolating the quantum system from the surrounding environment and its fluctuations. This experimental “noise” perturbs the quantum system, a process that is generally referred to as decoherence: the system slowly loses its distinguishing quantum features. In this thesis the effects of spatial correlations in the noise environment with a finite correlation length are investigated. The consequences for the experimental design of controlled quantum systems as well as the dynamics of solid state systems are presented. We utilize the Bloch-Redfield formalism, a Markovian master equation approach, which gives a close connection to the underpinning system-environment model. We show how to use this formalism to model any spatial correlation function of the noise environment. Using microscopic environmental models, several correlation functions are derived and their properties connected to the environmental parameters. Several phenomenological correlation functions are also studied and a mapping to the Lindblad master equation is presented, which provides a test of positivity for phenomenological models. For quantum transport through spin chains and networks, noise is generally detrimental. Spatial correlations however reduce the effect of dephasing noise and can reinstate the transport dynamics. The critical correlation length proves to be closely connected to the maximal packet width of one excitation in the transfer process. For dissipation noise, relaxation-free states emerge with spatial correlations. The decay of an excitation is therefore fundamentally modified into a fast decay towards an intermediate relaxation-reduced state and a subsequent decay to the ground state on a much longer time scale. In quantum metrology noise correlations have been observed in experiments with trapped ions, in which they limit the use of such experiments for metrology. Quantum advantage, i.e. a better precision scaling than the standard quantum limit has been proven impossible in the presence of uncorrelated Markovian noise only. We show that for certain optimized states the best possible quantum advantage, Heisenberg scaling, can be achieved in the presence of noise with a finite spatial decay of correlations. We furthermore identify how dephasing effects change and a topology dependence arises in strength with increasing correlation length for entangled states in a general way. Biological photosynthetic complexes have recently been found to potentially include quantum coherent dynamics, particularly in the process of transmitting an exciton from the point of creation to the reaction centre. We show how the formalism of spatially correlated decoherence adapts to this significantly different energy regime. Typical effects of decoherence in this field are presented and we show how the light-harvesting efficiency is influenced by spatial correlations in the noise. This thesis highlights the fundamental relevance of noise correlations to several fields of quantum physics and the importance of the efficient and comprehensive modelling techniques presented.
Environmental effects on the evolution of a spin system in the context of the central spin problem, have been studied for more than 60 years. With the growing complexity of quantum information processors there is a new need to better understand and control the interactions of qubits with their environment. Decoherence is an apparent loss of quantum coherence of the central spin, which is the result of the coherent evolution of the central spin and its spin environment. This evolution may be understood as the consequence of local field fluctuations induced by heteronuclear dipolar interaction between the central spin and the environment spins and homonuclear dipolar interaction of spins in the environment. A complete theoretical description for the evolution of the central spin does not exist and numerical solutions are restricted to small spin environments. \n \nAnother way of looking at the central spin problem is to study the correlations between the central spin and the environment spins. In this method the evolution of the central spin is described with the dynamics of multi-spin correlations resulting from interactions of the central spin and the environment spins. \nUsing Multiple Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MQ NMR) techniques, we have designed experiments for the direct detection of multi-spin correlations between the central spin and environment spins. These experiments are used to observe the progress in production of correlations between the central spin and the environment. They reveal the multi-spin dynamics that underlies the decoherence process. \n \nThe central spin is initially uncorrelated with the environment and quantum information resides exclusively on it. After the interaction with the environment spins quantum information is shared in the form of correlated operators between the central spin and the environment. Using our experiments this flow of quantum information from the central spin to the environment and the quantum information content of the environment, can be quantified. Further, these experiments are used to gauge the sensitivity of correlation to perturbation in the environment, by observing the mixing dynamics of the multi-spin correlations. The Out-of-Time Correlation metric is used for the sensitivity measurements. We find that the dynamics of correlations in our system is better explained by the extent of information flow to the environment rather than the evolution time.
The title of the present dissertation Decoherence in Quantum Network sounds very general and all-inclusive. Indeed it embraces two topics (decoherence and quantum network) from the area of Quantum Mechanics each of which is described in all respects by a huge literature developed in the last three decades [...]. Quantum decoherence, as the name lets it mean, is the mechanism that makes a quantum system loose its coherence properties, and with them the capability of giving rise to interference phenomena or to other interesting quantum effects [...]. The key idea promoted by decoherence is the insight that realistic quantum systems are never isolated, but are immersed in the surrounding environment and interact continuously with it [...]. As an example one may consider a two-level quantum system (i.e. a quantum bit, usually shortened with a terminology from information science to \\qubit" ) in contact with a wide environment. Hence, quantum systems are open systems, and continuously interact or exchange information with an external environment whose degrees of freedom are too numerous to be monitored. The resulting correlation between the system and the environment spoils quantum coherence and brings about the transition from a pure quantum state to a mixture of quantum state resulting a classical state. To describe decoherence different kind of approaches can be used (for example Master equation, random matrix, etc). A quantum network typically consists of a number of quantum objects (e.g., atoms, ions, quantum dots, cavities, etc.), to be referred to hereafter as the sites or the nodes of the network. They can interact and the interactions (or their correlations) will be usually described by the edges of a graph. Quantum networks can address different information processing tasks. For instance a quantum state can be transferred from qubit to qubit down a chain solely due to the interactions, that is according to the laws of quantum physics [...]. Quantum networks offer us new opportunities and phenomena as compared to classical networks. An extension to large scale of the idea of a quantum network could lead to a futurible quantum internet [...]. The study of networks has traditionally been the territory of graph theory [...], also with the advent of their quantum versions. Within simple quantum network model information processing is usually described by assuming perfect control of the underlying graph. However, this is not much realistic since randomness is often present and it leads to decoherence effects [...]. In contrast, the conservation of coherence is essential for any quantum information process [...], hence there is a persistent interest in decoherence effects in quantum networks, which motivate us to study models for describing such noisy effects. We consider a simple model of quantum network, employing qubits (spin-1/2 particles) attached to the nodes of an underlying graph and we study the simplest task, namely information storage (on a single and two qubits), when the graph randomly changes in time. Actually we randomly add edges to an initially disconnected graph according to the Gilbert model characterized by a weighting parameter ex [...] and in an identically and independent way at each time step. We find that by increasing ex the dynamics of relevant quantities like fidelity, entropy or concurrence, gradually transforms from damped to damped oscillatory and finally to purely oscillatory. That leads to the paper [see, Information dissipation in random quantum networks, by U. Farooq and S. Mancini, OSID 21(3), 1450004, 2014]. We also study a system composed by pairs of qubits attached to each node of a linear chain, a model that stems from quantum dot arrays. Here we use the approach of evolution with a stochastic Hamiltonian to describe the noisy effects. We then evaluate the effect of two most common disorders, namely exchange coupling and hyperfine interaction fluctuations, in adiabatic preparation of ground state in such model. We show that the adiabatic ground state preparation is highly robust against these disorders making the chain a good analog simulator. Moreover, we also study the adiabatic information transfer, using singlet-triplet states, across the chain. In contrast to ground state preparation the transfer mechanism is highly affected by disorders. This suggested that for communication tasks across such chains adiabatic evolution is not as effective and quantum quenches would be preferable. That leads to the paper [see, Adiabatic many-body state preparation and information transfer in quantum dot arrays, by U. Farooq, A. Bayat, S. Mancini and S. Bose Phys. Rev. B 91, 134303, 2015]. The present work is organized as follows. In chapter 1, we shall give a survey of the various types of approach which can be employed to analyse the dynamics of open quantum systems that leads to decoherence effects. In chapter 2, we shall give a general description about quantum network and its possible applications. In chapter 3, we shall discuss the problem of quantum state transfer in qubit network and shall give a brief overview of some scheme that enable nearly prefect state transfer. In chapter 4, we shall discuss singlet-triplet networks, that is networks having on each site a pair of (generally entangled) qubit. Then within this framework we propose a model stemming from quantum dot array. There we shall address the problem of ground state preparation and state transfer. Finally we shall describe the inherent entanglement of the ground state of strongly correlated systems can be exploited for both classical and quantum communications. In chapter 5, we shall propose a decoherence model for qubit networks based on edges representing XY interactions randomly added to a disconnected graph accordingly to a suitable probability distribution. In this way we shall describe dissipation of information initially localize in single or two qubits all over the network. In chapter 6 we shall model the noisy effects in the quantum dot array introduced in chapter 4 and investigate their consequences on the preparation of ground state and quantum state transfer mechanism. Finally we shall draw conclusions.