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arXiv:2505.16622 · Physical Review A

Temporal steering of entanglement decay with single-shot control

Saumya Ranjan Behera, Kallol Sen, Animesh Sinha Roy, Snigdhadev Ray, Ashutosh Singh, A. R. P. Rau, Urbasi Sinha

Published Jun 9, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Entanglement in open quantum systems can vanish abruptly through entanglement sudden death (ESD) under dissipative evolution, posing a challenge for quantum technologies. Here, we show that the timing of a single local unitary operation can deterministically steer the trajectory of entanglement decay. This introduces temporal steering of dissipative quantum dynamics as a control resource. We develop a time-dependent open-system framework in which a time-shift operator generates a family of effective conditional maps parametrized by $x \in [0,1]$, connecting independent and correlated amplitude damping. Within this framework, we derive analytic conditions for ESD and show that a single intermediate local $σ_x$ operation can avoid, delay, or hasten ESD by redirecting the dissipative trajectory rather than modifying the environment. We further prove that this single-shot protocol is optimal within a broad class of local control strategies. Experimentally, a displaced-Sagnac interferometer realizes the correlated-damping-like regime and, for the first time in one photonic platform, demonstrates avoidance, delay, and hastening of the separability transition. Our results establish temporal steering of open-system dynamics as a practical paradigm for decoherence control, and demonstrate operational advantages in use cases such as teleportation, illustrating that in dissipative quantum systems knowing \textit{when} to act can be as important as knowing \textit{what} operation to perform.

DOI
10.1103/84n3-bcz8

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Entanglement in open quantum systems can vanish abruptly through entanglement sudden death (ESD) under dissipative evolution, posing a challenge for quantum technologies. Here, we show that the timing of a single local unitary operation can deterministically steer the trajectory of entanglement decay. This introduces temporal steering of dissipative quantum dynamics as a control resource. We develop a time-dependent open-system framework in which a time-shift operator generates a family of effective conditional maps parametrized by x∈[0,1]x \in [0,1]x∈[0,1], connecting independent and correlated amplitude damping. Within this framework, we derive analytic conditions for ESD and show that a single intermediate local σxσ_xσx​ operation can avoid, delay, or hasten ESD by redirecting the dissipative trajectory rather than modifying the environment. We further prove that this single-shot protocol is optimal within a broad class of local control strategies. Experimentally, a displaced-Sagnac interferometer realizes the correlated-damping-like regime and, for the first time in one photonic platform, demonstrates avoidance, delay, and hastening of the separability transition. Our results establish temporal steering of open-system dynamics as a practical paradigm for decoherence control, and demonstrate operational advantages in use cases such as teleportation, illustrating that in dissipative quantum systems knowing \textit{when} to act can be as important as knowing \textit{what} operation to perform.
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We investigate the entanglement dynamics of two interacting qubits in a common vacuum environment. The inevitable environment interaction leads to entanglement sudden death (ESD) in a two qubit entangled state system. The entanglement dynamics can be modified by the use of local unitary operations (quantum gates), applied on the system during its evolution. We show that these operations not only delays or avoids the ESD but also advances the entanglement revival with high concurrence value depending on the time of operation. We have analytically found out different time windows for switching with different quantum gates so that the ESD can be completely avoided in the subsequent evolution of the system. Our result offers practical applications in the field of quantum information processing where the entanglement is a necessary resource.
Abstract The inevitable dissipative interaction of an entangled quantum system with its environment causes degradation in quantum correlations present in the system. This can lead to a finite-time disappearance of entanglement, which is known as Entanglement Sudden Death (ESD). Here, we consider an initially entangled qubit-qutrit system and a dissipative noise which leads to ESD, and propose a set of local unitary operations, which when applied on the qubit, qutrit, or both subsystems during the decoherence process, cause ESD to be hastened, delayed, or avoided altogether, depending on its time of application. Delay and avoidance of ESD may find practical application in quantum information processing protocols that would otherwise suffer due to short lifetime of entanglement. The physical implementation of these local unitaries is discussed in the context of an atomic system. The simulation results of such ESD manipulations are presented for two different classes of initially entangled qubit-qutrit systems. A prescription for generalization of this scheme to a qutrit-qutrit system is given. This technique for entanglement protection in the noisy environment is compared with other related techniques such as weak measurement reversal, dynamic decoupling, and quantum Zeno effect.
This paper will analyze the impact of “stochastic noises” on open quantum systems, also known as systems exposed to their environment. In the real world, entangled systems are often subject to stochastic environmental noises that result in decoherence and corruption of their quantum properties. This poses a significant challenge for the implementation of quantum entanglement in fields such as quantum computing and quantum informatics. We will describe the dynamics and evolution of these entangled systems as they decay from a maximally entangled state to a separated state. These dynamics can be highly sensitive to the type and strength of noise, leading to a wide variety of decay behaviors. A special phenomenon we encounter is Entanglement Sudden Death (ESD), where entanglement dies inexplicably within a short period of time. We will also analyze the time-dependent distance from the separability boundary, denoted Λ, within these evolving systems.
Abstract Entanglement is an essential resource for quantum information processing; however, it is highly susceptible to decoherence induced by environmental interactions. In this work, we investigate the entanglement dynamics of a two-qubit system subjected to Markovian noise and explore the effectiveness of external control fields in preserving quantum correlations. Using the Lindblad master equation, we model the evolution of the system under two decoherence channels, namely, amplitude damping (spontaneous emission) and phase damping (dephasing). We introduce periodic driving and optimal control protocols to mitigate entanglement loss and analyze their impact using concurrence as a quantifier of two-qubit entanglement. Our numerical results reveal certain conditions under which sudden death of entanglement can be delayed or even prevented. Additionally, in the case of the initial state being a mixed state, we identify time regimes where entanglement revival occurs, providing insights into quantum error correction strategies. The results contribute to the broader understanding of quantum coherence preservation and have implications for quantum computing, secure quantum communication, and quantum memory design.
The ubiquitous effects of the environment on quantum-mechanical systems generally cause temporally correlated fluctuations. This particularly holds for systems of interest for quantum computation where such effects lead to correlated errors. The Markovian approximation neglects these correlations and thus fails to accurately describe open-system dynamics where these correlations become relevant. In driven open systems, yet another approximation is persistently used, often unknowingly, in which one describes the decay effects independently from the time-dependent controlling fields acting on the system, thereby ignoring further temporally correlated effects. To overcome these shortcomings, we develop a quantum master equation for driven systems weakly coupled to quantum environments that avoids the aforementioned field-independent approximation, as well as the Markovian approximation. Our method makes it possible to track all occurring decay channels and their time-dependent generalized rates which we illustrate in the example of a generally driven two-level system. We also demonstrate that correlated and field-dependent dissipative effects can lead to an increase in the performance of single-qubit gate operations.