Physical Review A
Loschmidt echo of a two-level qubit coupled to nonuniform anisotropic XY chains in a transverse field
Ming Zhong, Peiqing Tong
Abstract
The Loschmidt echo (LE) of a central two-level qubit coupled to nonuniform anisotropic $XY$ chains in a transverse field is studied. A general formula for LE is derived, which we use to discuss the influence of the criticality of the environment on LE. It is found that for the periodic $XY$ chain the behaviors of LE in the vicinity of the critical points are similar to those of the uniform case. It is different for the disordered transverse Ising chains. For the aperiodic chains, if the surrounding systems are bounded chains, the behaviors of LE are similar to those of the uniform case, while if the surrounding systems are unbounded chains, they are similar to those of the disordered case.