We built a new set of suitable measures of correlations for bipartite quantum states based upon a recently introduced theoretical framework [Bussandri et al. in Quantum Inf. Proc. 18:57, 2019]. We applied these measures to examine the behavior of correlations in two-qubit states with maximally mixed marginals independently interacting with non-dissipative decohering environments in different dynamical scenarios of physical relevance. In order to get further insight about the physical meaning of the behavior of these correlation measures we compared our results with those obtained by means of well-known correlation measures such as quantum mutual information and quantum discord. On one hand, we found that the behaviors of total and classical correlations, as assessed by means of the measures introduced in this work, are qualitatively in agreement with the behavior displayed by quantum mutual information and the measure of classical correlations typically used to calculate quantum discord. We also found that the optimization of all the measures of classical correlations depends upon a single parameter and the optimal value of this parameter turns out to be the same in all cases. On the other hand, regarding the measures of quantum correlations used in our studies, we found that in general their behavior does not follow the standard quantum discord D . As the quantification by means of standard quantum discord and the measures of quantum correlations introduced in this work depends upon the assumption that total correlations are additive, our results indicate that this property needs a deeper and systematic study in order to gain a further understanding regarding the possibility to obtain reliable quantifiers of quantum correlations within this additive scheme.
We built a new set of suitable measures of correlations for bipartite quantum states based upon a recently introduced theoretical framework [Bussandri et al. in Quantum Inf. Proc. 18:57, 2019]. We applied these measures to examine the behavior of correlations in two-qubit states with maximally mixed marginals independently interacting with non-dissipative decohering environments in different dynamical scenarios of physical relevance. In order to get further insight about the physical meaning of the behavior of these correlation measures we compared our results with those obtained by means of well-known correlation measures such as quantum mutual information and quantum discord. On one hand, we found that the behaviors of total and classical correlations, as assessed by means of the measures introduced in this work, are qualitatively in agreement with the behavior displayed by quantum mutual information and the measure of classical correlations typically used to calculate quantum discord. We also found that the optimization of all the measures of classical correlations depends upon a single parameter and the optimal value of this parameter turns out to be the same in all cases. On the other hand, regarding the measures of quantum correlations used in our studies, we found that in general their behavior does not follow the standard quantum discord D . As the quantification by means of standard quantum discord and the measures of quantum correlations introduced in this work depends upon the assumption that total correlations are additive, our results indicate that this property needs a deeper and systematic study in order to gain a further understanding regarding the possibility to obtain reliable quantifiers of quantum correlations within this additive scheme.
Abstract Understanding how correlations can be used for quantum communication protocols is a central goal of quantum information science. While many authors have linked the global measures of correlations such as entanglement or discord to the performance of specific protocols, in general the latter may require only correlations between specific observables. In this work, we first introduce a general measure of correlations for two-qubit states, based on the classical mutual information between local observables. Our measure depends on the state’s purity and the symmetry in the correlation distribution, according to which we provide a classification of maximally mixed marginal states (MMMS). We discuss the complementarity relation between correlations and coherence. By focusing on a simple yet paradigmatic example, i.e. the remote state preparation protocol, we introduce a method to systematically define the proper protocol-tailored measures of the correlations. The method is based on the identification of those correlations that are relevant (useful) for the protocol. On the one hand, the approach allows the role of the symmetry of the correlation distribution to be discussed in determining the efficiency of the protocol, both for MMMS and general two-qubit quantum states, and on the other hand, it allows an optimized protocol for non-MMMS to be devised, which is more efficient with respect to the standard one. Overall, our findings clarify how the key resources in simple communication protocols are the purity of the state used and the symmetry of the correlation distribution.
Quantum discord, a kind of quantum correlation, is defined as the difference between quantum mutual information and classical correlation in a bipartite system. In general, this correlation is different from entanglement, and quantum discord may be nonzero even for certain separable states. Even in the simple case of bipartite quantum systems, this different kind of quantum correlation has interesting and significant applications in quantum information processing. So far, quantum discord has been calculated explicitly only for a rather limited set of two-qubit quantum states and expressions for more general quantum states are not known. In this article, we derive explicit expressions for quantum discord for a larger class of two-qubit states, namely, a seven-parameter family of so called X states that have been of interest in a variety of contexts in the field. We also study the relation between quantum discord, classical correlation, and entanglement for a number of two-qubit states to demonstrate that they are independent measures of correlation with no simple relative ordering between them.
Knowledge of the dynamical behavior of correlations with no classical counterpart, like entanglement, nonlocal correlations and quantum discord, in open quantum systems is of primary interest because of the possibility to exploit these correlations for quantum information tasks. Here we review some of the most recent results on the dynamics of correlations in bipartite systems embedded in non-Markovian environments that, with their memory effects, influence in a relevant way the system dynamics and appear to be more fundamental than the Markovian ones for practical purposes. Firstly, we review the phenomenon of entanglement revivals in a two-qubit system for both independent environments and a common environment. We then consider the dynamics of quantum discord in non-Markovian dephasing channel and briefly discuss the occurrence of revivals of quantum correlations in classical environments.
Quantum discord, a kind of quantum correlation, is defined as the difference between quantum mutual information and classical correlation in a bipartite system. It has been discussed so far for small systems with only a few independent parameters. We extend here to a much broader class of states when the second party is of arbitrary dimension d, so long as the first, measured, party is a qubit. We present two formulae to calculate quantum discord, the first relating to the original entropic definition and the second to a recently proposed geometric distance measure which leads to an analytical formulation. The tracing over the qubit in the entropic calculation is reduced to a very simple prescription. And, when the d-dimensional system is a so-called X state, the density matrix having non-zero elements only along the diagonal and anti-diagonal so as to appear visually like the letter X, the entropic calculation can be carried out analytically. Such states of the full bipartite qubit-qudit system may be named "extended X states", whose density matrix is built of four block matrices, each visually appearing as an X. The optimization involved in the entropic calculation is generally over two parameters, reducing to one for many cases, and avoided altogether for an overwhelmingly large set of density matrices as our numerical investigations demonstrate. Our results also apply to states of a N-qubit system, where "extended X states" consist of (2^(N+2) - 1) states, larger in number than the (2^(N+1) - 1) of X states of N qubits. While these are still smaller than the total number (2^(2N) - 1) of states of N qubits, the number of parameters involved is nevertheless large. In the case of N = 2, they encompass the entire 15-dimensional parameter space, that is, the extended X states for N = 2 represent the full qubit-qubit system.
Quantum discord, as introduced by Olliver and Zurek [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 017901 (2001)], is a measure of the discrepancy between two natural yet different quantum analogs of the classical mutual information. This notion characterizes and quantifies quantumness of correlations in bipartite states from a measurement perspective, and is fundamentally different from the various entanglement measures in the entanglement vs separability paradigm. The phenomenon of nonzero quantum discord is a manifestation of quantum correlations due to noncommutativity rather than due to entanglement, and has interesting and significant applications in revealing the advantage of certain quantum tasks. We will evaluate analytically the quantum discord for a large family of two-qubit states, and make a comparative study of the relationships between classical and quantum correlations in terms of the quantum discord. We furthermore compare the quantum discord with the entanglement of formation, and illustrate that the latter may be larger than the former, although for separable states, the entanglement of formation always vanishes and thus is less than the quantum discord.
The characterization and quantification of quantum correlations, which play an instrumental role in exploring and exploiting the quantum world, have been extensively and intensively studied in the past few decades. Of special prominence and significance are the concepts of entanglement and discord, which are usually regarded as very distinctive quantum correlations, with the latter going beyond the former. In this work we establish a direct and natural link between entanglement and discord via state extensions and reveal that entanglement is actually the intrinsic discord, by which we mean that entanglement is the irreducible residue of discord viewed from ambient spaces. Our approach, taking into account the contextuality of a quantum state and being of a global nature, stands in sharp contrast to the local operations and classical communication paradigm of entanglement, which focuses on the state itself via a local approach. Furthermore, we introduce a figure of merit which, on the one hand, captures the essence of entanglement, i.e., nonlocality and quantumness of correlations, and, on the other hand, leads to a quantitative decomposition of total correlations into classical correlations, dissonance, and entanglement. This demystifies the meaning of entanglement from the perspective of quantum measurements and provides a unified framework for the interplay of various correlations in terms of quantum measurements and mutual information.