The dynamics of a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a harmonic oscillator (HO) is studied under the combined effect of a thermal bath acting on the HO and of a detector continuously measuring one of the components of the spinlike TLS. The analysis focuses on the dynamics of the ``relative entropy of entanglement'' (REE) in the one-energy-excitation manifold of the reduced $\text{TLS}+\text{HO}$ system. For this model system, a stationary state is shown to be reached for which the relative entropy of entanglement is in general nonzero, even though, under certain approximations, the separate effects of bath and detector would be to remove any trace of this resource from the system. Analytical as well as numerical results are obtained for the REE as a function of the different parameters involved in the model definition.
The dynamics of a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a harmonic oscillator (HO) is studied under the combined effect of a thermal bath acting on the HO and of a detector continuously measuring one of the components of the spinlike TLS. The analysis focuses on the dynamics of the ``relative entropy of entanglement'' (REE) in the one-energy-excitation manifold of the reduced TLS+HO system. For this model system, a stationary state is shown to be reached for which the relative entropy of entanglement is in general nonzero, even though, under certain approximations, the separate effects of bath and detector would be to remove any trace of this resource from the system. Analytical as well as numerical results are obtained for the REE as a function of the different parameters involved in the model definition.
We investigate the quantum entanglement dynamics of two coupled harmonic oscillators with a time-dependent interaction. Using the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant method, we derive the exact analytical wave functions without any perturbative or adiabatic approximations and combine this with a phase-space analysis using the Wigner function to provide a complete description of the system's quantum state evolution. We obtain general expression form for the purity and the linear entropy SL=1−P for arbitrary excitation numbers (n,m), allows a systematic study of entanglement for a large class of quantum states. We show that the entanglement dynamics is very sensitive to the interplay between the detuning parameters θ and ϑ2, the frequency parameter β0 and the coupling strength ε: the increase of detuning takes the system from slow irregular oscillations to fast and regular periodic behavior, and the stronger coupling systematically enhances both the amplitude and the average value of the linear entropy. Most importantly, for the resonance case ω1=ω2=1 and strong couplings ε≈0.99, the system shows robust undamped synchronized periodic oscillations of the linear entropy for all quantum states considered, indicating preserved quantum coherence without saturation. Our findings demonstrate that linear entropy is a sensitive and practical entanglement witness, and we establish explicit analytical relations between the coupling parameters of the system and its entanglement properties, which are directly relevant to quantum information processing and the control of quantum correlations in continuous-variable systems.
In quantum physics, two prototypical model systems stand out due to their wide range of applications. These are the two-level system (TLS) and the harmonic oscillator. The former is often an ideal model for confined charge or spin systems and the latter for lattice vibrations, i.e., phonons. Here, we couple these two systems, which leads to numerous fascinating physical phenomena. Practically, we consider different optical excitations and decay scenarios of a TLS, focusing on the generated dynamics of a single phonon mode that couples to the TLS. Special emphasis is placed on the entropy of the different parts of the system, predominantly the phonons. While, without any decay, the entire system is always in a pure state, resulting in a vanishing entropy, the complex interplay between the single parts results in non-vanishing respective entanglement entropies and non-trivial dynamics of them. Taking a decay of the TLS into account leads to a non-vanishing entropy of the full system and additional aspects in its dynamics. We demonstrate that all aspects of the entropy's behavior can be traced back to the purity of the states and are illustrated by phonon Wigner functions in phase space.
We study two continuous variable systems (or two harmonic oscillators) and investigate their entanglement evolution under the influence of non-Markovian thermal environments. The continuous variable systems could be two modes of electromagnetic fields or two nanomechanical oscillators in the quantum domain. We use the quantum open system method to derive the non-Markovian master equations of the reduced density matrix for two different but related models of the continuous variable systems. The two models both consist of two interacting harmonic oscillators. In model A, each of the two oscillators is coupled to its own independent thermal reservoir, while in model B the two oscillators are coupled to a common reservoir. To quantify the degrees of entanglement for bipartite continuous variable systems in Gaussian states, logarithmic negativity is used. We find that the dynamics of the quantum entanglement is sensitive to the initial states, the oscillator-oscillator interaction, the oscillator-environment interaction and the coupling to a common bath or to different, independent baths.
Abstract We present an exact analytical solution of the Hu–Paz–Zhang master equation in a precise Markovian limit for a system of two harmonically coupled harmonic oscillators interacting with a common thermal bath of harmonic oscillators. The thermal bath is initially considered to be at arbitrary temperatures and characterized by an Ohmic Lorentz–Drude spectral density. In the examined system, couplings between the two harmonic oscillators and the environment ensure a complete decoupling of the center-of-mass and relative degrees of freedom, resulting in undamped dynamics in the relative coordinate. The exact time evolution is used to analyze the system’s entanglement dynamics, quantified through logarithmic negativity and quantum mutual information, while ensuring the positivity of the density operator to confirm the physical validity of the results. We demonstrate that, under certain parameter regimes and initial conditions, the asymptotic dynamics can give rise to periodic entanglement-disentanglement behavior. Furthermore, numerical simulations reveal that for negative values of the direct coupling between the oscillators, which are sufficiently close to a critical lower bound beyond which the system becomes unstable, the system can maintain entanglement across a broad temperature range and for arbitrarily long durations.
In this work, we explore the dynamics of entanglement of an isolated quantum system consisting of two time-dependent, coupled harmonic oscillators. Through the use of a numerical method that relies on the estimation of the system's Wigner representation by a specific Gaussian function, we investigate the time evolution of the entanglement entropy after an instant quench in the inherent parameters of the system. Besides, from the comparison of the results obtained from the analytical expression for the time-dependent von Neumann entropy with the numerically computed entropy data, the effectiveness of the numerical method is tested for a variety of angular frequency combinations. Also, we analyze how the entropy of entanglement change as a function of time.
We investigate the quantum-classical border, the entanglement and decoherence of an analytically solvable model, comprising a first subsystem (a harmonic oscillator) coupled to a driven and damped second subsystem (another harmonic oscillator). We choose initial states whose dynamics is confined to a couple of two-level systems, and show that the maximum value of entanglement between the two subsystems, as measured by concurrence, depends on the dissipation rate to the coupling-constant ratio and the initial state. While in a related model the entropy of the first subsystem (a two-level system) never grows appreciably (for large dissipation rates), in our model it reaches a maximum before decreasing. Although both models predict small values of entanglement and dissipation, for fixed times of the order of the inverse of the coupling constant and large dissipation rates, these quantities decrease faster, as a function of the ratio of the dissipation rate to the coupling constant, in our model.