This paper delves into the exploration of quantum resources within a two-qubit system composed of two 2-level atoms connected to distinct thermal baths. Various quantifiers are employed to evaluate different aspects of the system’s quantum characteristics. Specifically, the [Formula: see text]-norm and relative entropy of coherence ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]) are utilized to gauge quantum coherence, while local quantum Fisher information (LQFI) is used to quantify non-classical correlations within the system. The findings suggest that the amount of quantum correlations and coherence decline as the spontaneous emission rate [Formula: see text] and the mean thermal photon number n increase. However, it is observed that manipulating parameters defining the initial state of the two-level atoms system can enhance non-classical correlations and quantum coherence between the two atoms. Additionally, it is noted that these three key metrics entirely vanish in the asymptotic limit of time. Our research underscores the importance of precisely adjusting the parameters of the initial system state, which is prepared in an extended Werner-like state (EWL), to protect quantum resources shared between the two atoms from environmental influences.
We present a theoretical study of quantum coherent dynamics in a three-level
Λ system driven by a thermal environment. By solving the nonsecular Bloch-Redfield master equations, we obtain analytical results for the ground-state population and coherence dynamics and classify the dynamical regimes of the incoherently driven
Λ-system as underdamped and overdamped depending on whether the ratio
Δ/[rf(p)] is greater or less than one, where
Δ is the ground-state energy splitting,
r is the incoherent pumping rate, and
f(p) is a dimensionless function of the transition dipole alignment parameter
p. In the underdamped regime, we observe long-lived coherent dynamics that lasts for
τc≃1/r, even though the initial state of the
Λ-system contains no coherences in the energy basis. In the overdampled regime for
p=1, we observe the emergence of coherent quasi-steady states with the lifetime
τc=1.34(r/Δ2), which have low von Neumann entropy compared to the conventional thermal states. Our results suggest that thermal excitations can enhance the lifetimes of initially created coherent superpositions, making thermal driving a potentially useful coherence-enhancing tool for quantum information science.
We consider an open quantum system of N not directly interacting spins (qubits) in contact with both local and collective thermal environments. The qubit-environment interactions are energy conserving. We trace out the variables of the thermal environments and N−2 qubits to obtain the time-dependent reduced density matrix for two arbitrary qubits. We numerically simulate the reduced dynamics and the creation of entanglement (concurrence) as a function of the parameters of the thermal environments and the number of qubits, N . Our results demonstrate that the two-qubit entanglement generally decreases as N increases. We show analytically that, in the limit N→∞ , no entanglement can be created. This indicates that collective thermal environments cannot create two-qubit entanglement when many qubits are located within a region of the size of the environment coherence length. We discuss possible relevance of our consideration to recent quantum information devices and biosystems.
We present a theoretical study of quantum coherent dynamics of a three-level Λ-system driven by a thermal environment (such as blackbody radiation), which serves as an essential building block of photosynthetic light-harvesting models and quantum heat engines. By solving nonsecular Bloch–Redfield master equations, we obtain analytical results for the ground-state population and coherence dynamics and classify the dynamical regimes of the incoherently driven Λ-system as underdamped and overdamped depending on whether the ratio Δ/[rf(p)] is greater or less than one, where Δ is the ground-state energy splitting, r is the incoherent pumping rate, and f(p) is a function of the transition dipole alignment parameter p. In the underdamped regime, we observe long-lived coherent dynamics that lasts for τc ≃ 1/r, even though the initial state of the Λ-system contains no coherences in the energy basis. In the overdamped regime for p = 1, we observe the emergence of coherent quasi-steady states with the lifetime τc = 1.34(r/Δ2), which have a low von Neumann entropy compared to conventional thermal states. We propose an experimental scenario for observing noise-induced coherent dynamics in metastable He* atoms driven by x-polarized incoherent light. Our results suggest that thermal excitations can generate experimentally observable long-lived quantum coherent dynamics in the ground-state subspace of atomic and molecular Λ-systems in the absence of coherent driving.
We explore the coherent dynamics of a three-level
V-type system interacting with a thermal bath in the regime where thermal excitation occurs much faster than spontaneous decay. We present analytic solutions of the Bloch-Redfield quantum master equations, which show that strong incoherent pumping can generate long-lived quantum coherences among the excited states of the
V-type system in the overdamped regime defined by the condition $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}/(\overline{n}\ensuremath{\gamma})<f(p)$, where $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ is the excited-state level splitting, $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ is the spontaneous decay rate, $\overline{n}\ensuremath{\gg}1$ is the effective photon occupation number proportional to the pumping intensity, and
f(p) is a universal function of the transition dipole alignment parameter
p. In the limit of nearly parallel transition dipoles ($p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$) the coherence lifetime ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}=1.34(\overline{n}/\ensuremath{\gamma}){(\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}/\ensuremath{\gamma})}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ scales linearly with
n and is enhanced by the factor
0.67n with respect to the weak-pumping limit [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 113601 (2014); J. Chem. Phys. 144, 244108 (2016)]. We also establish the existence of long-lived quasistationary states, which occur in the overdamped regime and affect the process of thermalization of the
V-type system with the bath, slowing down the approach to thermal equilibrium. In the case of nonparallel transition dipole moments (
p<1), no quasistationary states are formed and the coherence lifetime decreases sharply. The sharp transition between the different regimes of coherent dynamics is due to an interplay between coherence-generating Fano interference and various coherence-destroying processes (such as stimulated decay). Using a newly developed effective decoherence rate model, we find that in the limit $p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$ the rates of coherence generation and decay are almost exactly balanced and the effective decoherence rate is minimized, leading to long coherence lifetimes. Our results reveal new regimes of long-lived quantum coherent dynamics, which could be observed in thermally driven atomic and molecular systems.
In this paper, we have investigated the entanglement between two dipole coupled two-level atoms. The model, in which only one atom is trapped in an lossless cavity and interacts with single-mode thermal field, and the other one can be spatially moved freely outside the cavity has been carried out. We have considered the effect of the atomic coherence on the entanglement behavior. We have shown that a thermal field might cause high entanglement between the atoms both for coherent and incoherent initial atomic states only for small values of the cavity mean photon number. In the considered model the atoms would get entangled even when both atoms are initially in the excited state. We have also derived that the degree of entanglement is weakly dependent on the strength of dipole-dipole interaction for coherent initial states.