The interaction between entangled multi-particle systems with the environment leads to both local dynamics, associated with single-particle dissipation, diffusion, and decay, and to global dynamics, which may provoke the disappearance of entanglement at a finite time [1-6]. This phenomenon may occur even when single-particle decoherence is asymptotic in time, and constitutes yet another distinct trait of entanglement. It has been recently demonstrated, for two qubits under the action of independent environments, using an all-optical setup [7]. In this talk, some of the peculiarities of the dynamics of two-qubit entangled states undergoing decoherence will be reviewed, new features of the experiment realized at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro [7] will be described, and the extension of these considerations to multi-particle entangled states will be discussed. Scaling laws for the decay of entanglement and its finite-time extinction in multi-particle systems will be discussed.
This paper presents the results of a functional-integral approach to the dynamics of a two-state system coupled to a dissipative environment. It is primarily an extended account of results obtained over the last four years by the authors; while they try to provide some background for orientation, it is emphatically not intended as a comprehensive review of the literature on the subject. Its contents include (1) an exact and general prescription for the reduction, under appropriate circumstances, of the problem of a system tunneling between two wells in the presence of a dissipative environment to the "spin-boson" problem; (2) the derivation of an exact formula for the dynamics of the latter problem; (3) the demonstration that there exists a simple approximation to this exact formula which is controlled, in the sense that we can put explicit bounds on the errors incurred in it, and that for almost all regions of the parameter space these errors are either very small in the limit of interest to us (the "slow-tunneling" limit) or can themselves be evaluated with satisfactory accuracy; (4) use of these results to obtain quantitative expressions for the dynamics of the system as a function of the spectral density $J(\ensuremath{\omega})$ of its coupling to the environment. If $J(\ensuremath{\omega})$ behaves as ${\ensuremath{\omega}}^{s}$ for frequencies of the order of the tunneling frequency or smaller, the authors find for the "unbiased" case the following results: For
s<1 the system is localized at zero temperature, and at finite
T relaxes incoherently at a rate proportional to $\mathrm{exp}\ensuremath{-}{(\frac{{T}_{0}}{T})}^{1\ensuremath{-}s}$. For
s>2 it undergoes underdamped coherent oscillations for all relevant temperatures, while for
1<s<2 there is a crossover from coherent oscillation to overdamped relaxation as
T increases. Exact expressions for the oscillation and/or relaxation rates are presented in all these cases. For the "ohmic" case,
s=1, the qualitative nature of the behavior depends critically on the dimensionless coupling strength $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ as well as the temperature
T: over most of the ($\ensuremath{\alpha}$,
T) plane (including the whole region $\ensuremath{\alpha}>1$) the behavior is an incoherent relaxation at a rate proportional to ${T}^{2\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{-}1}$, but for low
T and $0<\ensuremath{\alpha}<\frac{1}{2}$ the authors predict a combination of damped coherent oscillation and incoherent background which appears to disagree with the results of all previous approximations. The case of finite bias is also discussed.
A characteristic function for spin systems is applied to investigate the dissipation and decoherence of one and two two-level atoms. Particular attention is devoted to the Schr¨ odinger cat-like states of two two-level systems. It has been demonstrated that the decoherence time and the phase damping rate depend linearly on the number of degrees of freedom for the maximally entangled initial state. Use of various characteristic functions to describe the decoherence processes is advocated. Two realizations of the SU(2) group are discussed in this context. The first one is based on the homomorphism of SU(2) and the group of rotations, the second one takes as its basis the Schwinger coupled-boson representation of angular-momentum operators as well as the definition of the characteristic function provided by Scully and W´ odkiewicz.
We study decoherence of two non-interacting qubits. The environment and its interaction with the qubits are modelled by random matrices. Decoherence, measured in terms of purity, is calculated in linear response approximation. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate the validity of this approximation and of its extension by exponentiation. The results up to this point are also used to study one-qubit decoherence. Purity decay of entangled and product states are qualitatively similar though for the latter case it is slower. Numerical studies for a Bell pair as initial state reveal a one to one correspondence between its decoherence and its internal entanglement decay. For strong and intermediate coupling to the environment this correspondence agrees with the one for Werner states. In the limit of a large environment the evolution induces a unital channel in the two qubits, providing a partial explanation for the above relation.
We study decoherence of two non-interacting qubits. The environment and its interaction with the qubits are modelled by random matrices. Decoherence, measured in terms of purity, is calculated in linear response approximation. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate the validity of this approximation and of its extension by exponentiation. The results up to this point are also used to study one qubit decoherence. Purity decay of entangled and product states are qualitatively similar though for the latter case it is slower. Numerical studies for a Bell pair as initial state reveal a one to one correspondence between its decoherence and its internal entanglement decay. For strong and intermediate coupling to the environment this correspondence agrees with the one for Werner states. In the limit of a large environment the evolution induces a unital channel in the two qubits, providing a partial explanation for the relation above.