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arXiv:1605.00394 · Open Systems & Information Dynamics

Leggett-Garg Inequality for a Two-Level System under Decoherence

Nasim Shahmansoori, Afshin Shafiee

Published Mar 1, 2018• 1 citation
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Abstract

We consider a macroscopic quantum system subjected to an asymmetric double-well potential in a harmonic environment. By using a time-dependent approach, we calculate tunnelling probabilities for the system which contain oscillation effects. To show how one can decide between quantum mechanics and the implications of macrorealism assumptions, a given form of Leggett-Garg inequality is considered. The violation of this inequality occurs for a broader range of the system-environment interactions, compared to previous results obtained for two-level systems. Assuming that the coupling strength between the system and the environment can be controlled with time, one can see the violation even for strong decoherence effects. We also investigate the variation of the tilt/tunnelling parameters on the violation of Leggett-Garg inequality.

DOI
10.1142/s1230161218500038

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We consider a macroscopic quantum system subjected to an asymmetric double-well potential in a harmonic environment. By using a time-dependent approach, we calculate tunnelling probabilities for the system which contain oscillation effects. To show how one can decide between quantum mechanics and the implications of macrorealism assumptions, a given form of Leggett-Garg inequality is considered. The violation of this inequality occurs for a broader range of the system-environment interactions, compared to previous results obtained for two-level systems. Assuming that the coupling strength between the system and the environment can be controlled with time, one can see the violation even for strong decoherence effects. We also investigate the variation of the tilt/tunnelling parameters on the violation of Leggett-Garg inequality.
Leggett-Garg inequalities (LGI) test the correlations of a single system measured at different times. Violation of LGI implies either the absence of a realistic description of the system or the impossibility of measuring the system without disturbing it. We investigate the violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality for a two level system under decoherence in a non-Markovian dephasing environment. We discuss the non-Markovian dynamics of the violation of LGI at zero temperature and also at finite temperature for different structured environments. An enhanced quantum coherence is shown through the violation of Leggett-Garg inequality in the strong non-Markovian regime of the environment.
Wigner's form of the local realist inequality is used to derive its temporal version for an oscillating two-level system involving two-time joint probabilities. Such an inequality may be regarded as a form of the Leggett-Garg inequality (LGI) constituting a necessary condition for macrorealism. The robustness of its quantum mechanical (QM) violation against unsharpness of measurement is investigated by using a suitable model of unsharp measurements. It is found that there exists a range of values of the sharpness parameter (characterizing precision of the relevant measurements) for which the usual LGI is satisfied by QM, but Wigner's form of the LGI (WLGI) is violated. This implies that for such unsharp measurements, the QM violation of macrorealism cannot be tested using the usual LGI, but can be tested using WLGI. In showing this, we take into account the general form of the usual LGI involving an arbitrary number of pairs of two-time correlation functions. Another recently proposed necessary condition for macrorealism, called ``no-signaling in time,'' is also probed, showing that its QM violation persists for arbitrarily unsharp measurements.
The Leggett-Garg (LG) inequalities were introduced to test for the possible presence of macroscopic quantum coherence. Since such effects may be found in various types of macroscopic oscillators, we consider the application of the LG approach to the one-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator and also to more general bound systems, using a single dichotomic variable QQQ given by the sign of the oscillator position. We present a simple method to calculate the temporal correlation functions appearing in the LG inequalities for any bound system for which the eigenspectrum is (exactly or numerically) known. We apply this result to the quantum harmonic oscillator for a variety of experimentally accessible states, namely, energy eigenstates, and superpositions thereof. For the subspace of states spanned by only the ground state and first excited state, we readily find substantial regions of parameter space in which the LG inequalities at two, three, and four times can each be independently violated or satisfied. We also find that the violations persist, although are reduced, when the sign function defining QQQ is smeared to reflect experimental imprecision. For higher-energy eigenstates, we find that LG violations diminish, showing the expected classicalization. With a QQQ defined using a more general type of position coarse graining, we find two-time LG violations even in the ground state. We also show that two-time LG violations in a Gaussian state are readily found if the dichotomic variable at one of the times is taken to be the parity operator. To demonstrate the versatility of the approach, we repeat much of the LG analysis for the Morse potential, finding qualitatively similar physical results.
In this paper, we attempt to establish the relationship between quantum coherence and the violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality. In particular, employing the Lindblad equation, we obtain the pseudo-density matrix for a damping system to study the effect of environment interaction on the violation of this inequality in a two-state quantum system. It is shown that the violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality can be observed as long as temporal evolution does not induce decoherence. This statement is independent of the initial state of the system. Furthermore, similar to the Horodecki criterion for the CHSH inequality (R. Horodecki et al. Phys. Lett. {\bf A200}, 340), we study necessary and sufficient conditions for violating the Leggett-Garg inequality. Hereby, under the circumstance that the inequality violation occurs, an upper bound for the time interval between consecutive measurements with respect to the time scale of interaction with the environment (the relaxation time) is obtained.
We investigate the nonclassicality of an open quantum system using Leggett-Garg inequality (LGI) which test the correlations of a single system measured at different times. Violation of LGI implies nonclassical behavior of the open system. We investigate the violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality for a two level system (qubit) spontaneously decaying under a general non-Markovian dissipative environment. Our results are exact as we have calculated the two-time correlation functions exactly for a wide range of system-environment parameters beyond Born-Markov regime.
Macrorealism posits that a system possesses definite properties at all times and that we can discover these properties, in principle, without disturbing the system's subsequent behavior. The Leggett-Garg inequalities are derived under these assumptions and are readily violated by standard quantum mechanics, thereby providing a scheme to test whether demonstrably macroscopic systems can exhibit quantum coherence. Unfortunately, Leggett-Garg tests suffer from the difficult to avoid clumsiness loophole: the difficulty of proving that sequential measurements have not inadvertently disturbed the system. The recently uncovered Tsirelson inequality is derived from the simple dynamical assumption of uniform precession, obeyed by many classical systems, and requires only single-time measurements. However, Tsirelson inequality violations could be explained by a macrorealistic system that merely breaks the dynamical assumption, rather than genuine quantum behavior. By carrying out a quantum-mechanical analysis of the Tsirelson inequality in the harmonic oscillator, we develop a protocol to rule out this possibility by assessing generalized conditions of uniform precession. We show that various measures of uniform precession, some of which are related to Leggett-Garg quantities, are satisfied well enough that the presence of quantum-mechanical interference terms must be implied. We derive several incidental mathematical results relating to violating states of Tsirelson's inequality, concerning dwell time, crossing number, and probability currents, and also consider a group-theoretic analysis of the Tsirelson operator.