We consider unitary evolution of finite bipartite quantum systems and study time dependence of purity for initial cat states -- coherent superpositions of Gaussian wave-packets. We derive explicit formula for purity in systems with nonzero time averaged coupling, a typical situation for systems where an uncoupled part of the Hamiltonian is Liouville integrable. Previous analytical studies have been limited to harmonic oscillator systems but with our theory we are able to derive analytical results for general integrable systems. Two regimes are clearly identified, at short times purity decays due to decoherence whereas at longer times it decays because of relaxation.
We study dynamical generation of entanglement in bipartite quantum systems, characterized by purity (or linear entropy), and caused by the coupling between the two subsystems. The explicit semiclassical theory of purity decay is derived for integrable classical dynamics of the uncoupled system and for localized (general Gaussian wave packet) initial states. Purity decays as an algebraic function of (time) $\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}$ (strength of perturbation), independently of the Planck's constant.
The quantum average energy decay and the purity decay are studied for a system particle as a function of the number of constituents of a discrete bath model. The system particle is subjected to two distinct physical situations: the harmonic oscillator (HO) and the Morse potential. The environment (bath) is composed by a {\it finite} number N of uncoupled HOs, characterizing the structured bath, which in the limit
N→∞ is assumed to have an ohmic, sub-ohmic or super-ohmic spectral density. For very low values of N the mean energy and purity remain constant in time but starts to decay for intermediate values (10
The stability of quantum systems to perturbations of the Hamiltonian is studied. This stability is quantified by the fidelity. Dependence of fidelity on the initial state as well as on the dynamical properties of the system is considered. In particular, systems having a chaotic or regular classical limit are analysed. The fidelity decay rate is given by an integral of the correlation function of the perturbation and is thus smaller the faster correlation function decays. If the perturbation can be written as a time derivative of another operator, meaning that the time averaged perturbation vanishes, fidelity freezes at a constant value and starts to decay only after a long time inversely proportional to the perturbation strength. In composite systems stability of entanglement to perturbations of the Hamiltonian is analysed in terms of purity. For regular systems purity decay is shown to be independent of Planck's constant for coherent initial states in the semiclassical limit. The accelerated decoherence of macroscopic superpositions is also explained. The theory of fidelity decay is applied to the stability of quantum computation and an improved quantum Fourier transform algorithm is designed.
In this chapter we study some properties of systems of coupled quadratic quantum Hamiltonians. The well known example is coupled harmonic oscillators appearing in the Quantum Brownian Motion. An open system is a physical (S) interacting with the environment (E) such that the total system
(S∪E) is isolated from the rest of the universe. So we have two independent Hamiltonians
H^S,
H^E and an interaction
V^ between (S) and (E). The main problem discussed for open systems is to understand the dynamical action of the interaction
V^ with the environment on the time dependent evolution of (S) which is now irreversible because a part of its energy escapes to the environment. An important physical effect of the interaction of the environment on a quantum system is decoherence which give an explanation for the mechanism driving the quantum-to-classical transition. We restrict ourself to few mathematical problems related with this very active field of research in physics [155, 200, 231, 270]. In a first part we study the purity of a state of (S) (or the linear entropy) in a short time approximation. In a second part we discuss the separability of bipartite systems. In a third part we establish a master equation (or a Fokker-Planck type equation) for the time evolution of the reduced matrix density for coupled quadratic Hamiltonians by a bilinear inter-action. We give an explicit formula for the solution of this master equation so that the time evolution of the reduced density at time t is written as a convolution integral for the reduced density at initial time
t0=0, with a Gaussian kernel, for
0≤t<tc where
tc∈]0,∞] is a critical time such that reversibility is lost for
t>tc if
tc<+∞. Some manifestations of decoherence, for
t>0 small enough, are proved on our simple model which is similar to a representation of the Schrödinger cat.
We address the evolution of cat-like states in general Gaussian noisy channels, by considering superpositions of coherent and squeezed-coherent states coupled to an arbitrarily squeezed bath. The phase space dynamics is solved and decoherence is studied keeping track of the purity of the evolving state. The influence of the choice of the state and channel parameters on purity is discussed and optimal working regimes that minimize the decoherence rate are determined. In particular, we show that squeezing the bath to protect a non squeezed cat state against decoherence is equivalent to orthogonally squeezing the initial cat state while letting the bath be phase insensitive.