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arXiv:1203.1186 · Physical Review B

Scaling of the decoherence factor of a qubit coupled to a spin chain driven across quantum critical points

Tanay Nag, Uma Divakaran, Amit Dutta

Published Jul 6, 2012• 44 citations
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Abstract

We study the scaling of the decoherence factor of a qubit (spin-$1/2$) using the central spin model in which the central spin (qubit) is globally coupled to a transverse XY spin chain. The aim here is to study the nonequilibrium generation of decoherence when the spin chain is driven across (along) quantum critical points (lines) and derive the scaling of the decoherence factor in terms of the driving rate and some of the exponents associated with the quantum critical points. Our studies show that the scaling of the logarithm of the decoherence factor is identical to that of the defect density in the final state of the spin chain following a quench across isolated quantum critical points for both linear and nonlinear variations of a parameter, even if the defect density may not satisfy the standard Kibble-Zurek scaling. However, one finds an interesting deviation when the spin chain is driven along a critical line. Our analytical predictions are in complete agreement with numerical results. Our study, though limited to integrable two-level systems, points to the existence of a universality in the scaling of the decoherence factor which is not necessarily identical to the scaling of the defect density.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.86.020401

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We study the scaling of the decoherence factor of a qubit (spin-1/21/21/2) using the central spin model in which the central spin (qubit) is globally coupled to a transverse XY spin chain. The aim here is to study the nonequilibrium generation of decoherence when the spin chain is driven across (along) quantum critical points (lines) and derive the scaling of the decoherence factor in terms of the driving rate and some of the exponents associated with the quantum critical points. Our studies show that the scaling of the logarithm of the decoherence factor is identical to that of the defect density in the final state of the spin chain following a quench across isolated quantum critical points for both linear and nonlinear variations of a parameter, even if the defect density may not satisfy the standard Kibble-Zurek scaling. However, one finds an interesting deviation when the spin chain is driven along a critical line. Our analytical predictions are in complete agreement with numerical results. Our study, though limited to integrable two-level systems, points to the existence of a universality in the scaling of the decoherence factor which is not necessarily identical to the scaling of the defect density.
We study the time dependence of the decoherence factor (DF) of a qubit globally coupled to an environmental spin system (ESS) which is driven across the quantum critical point (QCP) by varying a parameter of its Hamiltonian in time ttt as $1\ensuremath{-}t/\ensuremath{\tau}$ or $\ensuremath{-}t/\ensuremath{\tau}$, to which the qubit is coupled starting at the time $t\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\infty}$; here $\ensuremath{\tau}$ denotes the inverse quenching rate. In the limit of weak coupling we analyze the time evolution of the DF in the vicinity of the QCP (chosen to be at t=0t=0t=0) and define three quantities, namely, the generalized fidelity susceptibility ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{F}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ (defined right at the QCP), and the decay constants ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{2}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ which dictate the decay of the DF at a small but finite t(>0)t(>0)t(>0). Using a dimensional analysis argument based on the Kibble-Zurek healing length, we show that ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{F}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ as well as ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{2}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ indeed satisfy universal power-law scaling relations with $\ensuremath{\tau}$ and the exponents are solely determined by the spatial dimensionality of the ESS and the exponents associated with its QCP. Remarkably, using the numerical t-DMRG method, these scaling relations are shown to be valid in both the situations when the ESS is integrable and nonintegrable and also for both linear and nonlinear variation of the parameter. Furthermore, when an integrable ESS is quenched far away from the QCP, there is a predominant Gaussian decay of the DF with a decay constant which also satisfies a universal scaling relation.
Understanding how noise influences nonequilibrium quantum critical dynamics is essential for both fundamental physics and the development of practical quantum technologies. While the quantum Kibble-Zurek (QKZ) mechanism predicts universal scaling during quenches across a critical point, real quantum systems exhibit complex decoherence that can substantially modify these behaviors, ranging from altering critical scaling to completely suppressing it. By considering a specific case of nondemolishing noise, we first show how decoherence can reshape universal scaling and verify these theoretical predictions using numerical simulations of spin chains across a wide range of noise strengths. Then, we study linear quenches in the transverse-field Ising model on IBM superconducting processors where the noise model is unknown. Using large system sizes of 80-120 qubits, we measure equal-time connected correlations, defect densities, and excess energies across various quench times. Surprisingly, unlike earlier observations where noise-induced defect production masked universal behavior at long times, we observe clear scaling relations, pointing towards persistent universal structure shaped by decoherence. The extracted scaling exponents differ from both ideal QKZ predictions and analytic results for simplified noise models, suggesting the emergence of a distinct noise-influenced universality regime. Our results, therefore, point toward the possibility of using universal dynamical scaling as a high-level descriptor of quantum hardware, complementary to conventional gate-level performance metrics.
We review recent studies on the measures of zero temperature quantum correlations namely, the quantum entanglement (concurrence) and discord present in the final state of a transverse XY spin chain following a quench through quantum critical points; the aim of these studies is to explore the scaling of the above quantities as a function of the quench rate. A comparative study between the concurrence and the quantum discord shows that their behavior is qualitatively the same though there are quantitative differences. For the present model, the scaling of both the quantities are given by the scaling of the density of the defect present in the final state though one cannot find a closed form expression for the discord. We also extend our study of quantum discord to a transverse Ising chain in the presence of a three spin interaction. Finally, we present a study of the dynamical evolution of quantum discord and concurrence when two central qubits, initially prepared in a Werner state, are coupled to the environmental XY spin chain which is driven through quantum critical points. The qualitative behavior of quantum discord and concurrence are found to be similar as that of the decoherence factor.
We study dynamics of decoherence in a generic model where the environment is driven and undergoes a quantum phase transition. We model the environment by the Ising chain in the transverse field, and assume that the decohering system is a central spin-1/2. We found that when the environment is quenched slowly through the critical point, the decoherence factor of the central spin undergoes rapid decay that encodes the critical exponents of the environment. We also found that decoherence in a non-equilibrated, kink-contaminated, environment can be stronger than in a vacuum one. We derived a remarkably simple analytical expression that describes post-transition decoherence and predicts periodicities involving all system parameters. This research connects the fields of decoherence, quantum phase transitions, and Kibble-Zurek non-equilibrium dynamics.
We introduce the notion of a quantum version of a discontinuity critical point (DCP) in the context of a first-order quantum phase transition referred to as a quantum DCP (QDCP). We evaluate the critical exponents associated with such a QDCP using the appropriate scaling relations focusing mainly on a QDCP that is located at the boundary between a gapped phase and a gapless critical line as observed in a spin-12\frac{1}{2}21​ XXZ chain while we also touch upon the conventional Ising case. We then study temporal and spatial quenches in the vicinity of the QDCP associated with the XXZ chain and propose the scaling relation for the defect density and the residual energy characterized by associated critical exponents. These predictions are numerically verified for quenches of the XXZ chain to the QDCP (or across it), thereby establishing the existence of a Kibble-Zurek scaling for such quenches given in terms of appropriate critical exponents. Finally, in the Appendix we consider a generic situation which reduces to the case when the QDCP separates two gapped phases and also to that occurring in the XXZ chain, and present detail analysis of the universality and scaling relations concerning quantum quenches.
We study the dynamics of a transverse-field XY\mathrm{XY}XY chain driven across quantum critical points by noisy control fields. We characterize the defect density as a function of the quench time and the noise strength and demonstrate that the defect productions for three quench protocols with different scaling exponents exhibit the anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior, whereby slower driving results in more defects. The protocols are quenching through the boundary line between paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases, quenching across the isolated multicritical point, and quenching along the gapless line, respectively. We also show that the optimal quench time to minimize defects scales as a universal power law of the noise strength in all three cases. Furthermore, by using quantum simulation of the quench dynamics in the spin system with well-designed Landau-Zener crossings in pseudomomentum space, we propose an experimentally feasible scheme to test the predicted anti-Kibble-Zurek behavior of this noisy transverse-field XY\mathrm{XY}XY chain with two-level systems under controllable fluctuations.