Measuring correlations in quantum systems

Davide Girolami, Gerardo Adesso

Shunlong Luo, Nan Li

Decoherence arises from the interaction of a quantum system with the environment or, more precisely, from the measurement in which the environment ``measures'' the quantum system and establishes correlations with it. In this work, we first quantify measurement-induced correlations from both classical and quantum perspectives. Then we quantify decoherence via measurement-induced classical correlations. By virtue of an intrinsic and powerful link between entanglement (as quantified by entanglement of formation) and classical correlations (as quantified by the difference between the total correlations and quantum discord) in pure tripartite systems, we present general analytical formulas for measurement-induced correlations and decoherence measures for qubit systems and, furthermore, reveal a conservation relation for the information-disturbance tradeoff.

Gerardo Adesso, Davide Girolami

Simon J. D. Phoenix

The mutual information has been successfully used as a measure of correlation strength between quantum systems, especially for bipartite systems. Here we examine the use of this measure for multipartite quantum systems. For system of qubits we find that the difference between `classical' and `quantum' regimes of correlation strength amounts to just 1 bit of information, at most. We show that the information content of a correlation can be expanded into correlations between pairwise components and demonstrate that in terms of this information-based measure of correlation the GHZ states are the only states that simultaneously optimize these pairwise correlations for systems of qubits.

V. I. Yukalov, E. P. Yukalova

The survey discusses the problem of measuring correlations in composite quantum and statistical systems. After briefly recalling the standard methods of describing correlations, the emphasis is on the method of correlation indices. The latter method for quantifying the strength of correlations in composite physical systems is sufficiently general allowing for measuring in a unique way the correlation strength in both quantum and statistical systems, for static as well as for dynamic processes. The correlation indices, can be defined for correlation operators, reduced density matrices, and other operators containing information on correlations in the studied composite systems. The correlation indices measure all types of correlations, quantum correlations, such as entanglement, as well as classical correlations. They are applicable for characterizing static as well as dynamical processes. Examples are given of correlation indices for several quantum states and for spin and pseudospin systems. The quantification of correlations in a nonequilibrium system is exemplified by calculating the correlation index for a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate subject to the action of an alternating field.

Richard Healey