Decoherence factor in quantum phase transition

P. Pérez-Fernández, Armando Relaño, J. M. Arias +2 more

The decoherence induced on a single qubit by its interaction with the environment is studied. The environment is modeled as a scalar two-level boson system that can go through either first-order or continuous-excited-state quantum phase transitions, depending on the values of the control parameters. A mean-field method based on the Tamm-Damkoff approximation is worked out in order to understand the observed behavior of the decoherence. Only the continuous-excited-state phase transition produces a noticeable effect in the decoherence of the qubit. This is maximal when the system-environment coupling brings the environment to the critical point for the continuous phase transition. In this situation, the decoherence factor (or the fidelity) goes to zero with a finite-size scaling power law.

Simone Montangero

Bogdan Damski, H. T. Quan, Wojciech Hubert Zurek

We study dynamics of decoherence in a generic model where the environment is driven and undergoes a quantum phase transition. We model the environment by the Ising chain in the transverse field, and assume that the decohering system is a central spin-1/2. We found that when the environment is quenched slowly through the critical point, the decoherence factor of the central spin undergoes rapid decay that encodes the critical exponents of the environment. We also found that decoherence in a non-equilibrated, kink-contaminated, environment can be stronger than in a vacuum one. We derived a remarkably simple analytical expression that describes post-transition decoherence and predicts periodicities involving all system parameters. This research connects the fields of decoherence, quantum phase transitions, and Kibble-Zurek non-equilibrium dynamics.

Marek M. Rams

J. L. Guo, X. Z. Zhang

Short-range interaction among the spins can not only results in the rich phase diagram but also brings about fascinating phenomenon both in the contexts of quantum computing and information. In this paper, we investigate the quantum correlation of the system coupled to a surrounding environment with short-range anisotropic interaction. It is shown that the decay of quantum correlation of the central spins measured by pairwise entanglement and quantum discord can serve as a signature of quantum phase transition. In addition, we study the decoherence factor of the system when the environment is in the vicinity of the phase transition point. In the strong coupling regime, the decay of the decoherence factor exhibits Gaussian envelop in the time domain. However, in weak coupling limit, the quantum correlation of the system is robust against the disturbance of the magnetic field through optimal control of the anisotropic short-range interaction strength. Based on this, the effects of the short-range anisotropic interaction on the sudden transition from classical to quantum decoherence are also presented.