Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Physical Review Research

Evidence for unexpected robustness of multipartite entanglement against sudden death from spontaneous emission

Songbo Xie, Daniel Younis, Joseph H. Eberly

Published Jul 28, 2023• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Evidence is found that sheds light on the origin of entanglement sudden death (ESD), a phenomenon characterized by anomalously abrupt decay of quantum entanglement. By identifying a trigger state that initiates ESD, this discovery suggests that systems involving multiple parties exhibit increased robustness against this disruptive effect.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.5.l032015

Related papers

Unexpected Robustness of Multipartite Entanglement against Sudden Death from Spontaneous Emission

Songbo Xie, Daniel Younis, Joseph H. Eberly

Entanglement is known to decay even in isolated systems, an effect attributed to spontaneous emission. This fragility of entanglement can be exacerbated by entanglement sudden death (ESD), where entanglement drops to zero abruptly within a finite time. It is natural to assume that multipartite entanglement is more vulnerable to ESD, as it involves more parties experiencing spontaneous emission. In this work, we challenge this assumption and present a contrasting conclusion, asserting that multipartite entanglement demonstrates increased robustness against ESD from spontaneous emission.

arXiv:2210.01854•Oct 4, 2022•0 citations

Entanglement Sudden Death: Eberly's Work and the Limits of Local Dynamics

Abhaya S. Hegde, Songbo Xie

Entanglement sudden death (ESD), explored through a series of works by Yu and Eberly, supports the notion of entanglement vanishing abruptly and completely at a finite time, even when the underlying open-system dynamics remain smooth. In this article, we revisit the development of ESD from bipartite origins to genuine multipartite entanglement. We first illustrate the canonical mechanism of ESD with two independently damped qubits, for which the concurrence vanishes at a finite time while populations and coherences remain nonzero. We next present our results on multipartite entanglement for generalized GHZ states under depolarization. Global and independent local depolarizing dynamics can be chosen to produce identical reduced evolution for every individual qubit, yet they yield different genuine-multipartite-entanglement sudden death times, whose ordering can reverse with the initial state. For N-qubit GHZ states, this distinction becomes asymptotically stronger since the ESD time scales as 1/N under independent local depolarization, whereas under global depolarization it approaches a finite value in the thermodynamic limit. Echoing a central lesson of Prof. Eberly's work, we report the lifetime of multipartite entanglement is not fixed by the local dynamics, but rather depends on the evolution of the joint quantum state.

quant-pharXiv:2610.08710•Oct 7, 2026•0 citations

Understanding entanglement sudden death through multipartite entanglement and quantum correlations

Jared H. Cole

The effect of entanglement sudden death (ESD) can arise when entangling interactions convert purely bipartite entangled states into more generally entangled states. As a result, ESD can also be seen as a function of partitioning of the system, not just of time, as the system partitioning defines different (multipartite) entanglement classes. Computing both geometric entanglement hierarchies and the generalization of concurrence allows one to demonstrate that different methods of analysing quantum correlations provide both qualitative and quantitatively different descriptions of two commonly cited examples of ESD. These results follow directly from the inequivalence of entanglement and quantum correlations, the latter of which can exist in a state without the former.

arXiv:0809.1746•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Mar 10, 2010•20 citations

Sudden Death of Entanglement

Ting Yu, Joseph H. Eberly

A new development in the dynamical behavior of elementary quantum systems is the surprising discovery that correlation between two quantum units of information called qubits can be degraded by environmental noise in a way not seen previously in studies of dissipation. This new route for dissipation attacks quantum entanglement, the essential resource for quantum information as well as the central feature in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen so-called paradox and in discussions of the fate of Schrödinger's cat. The effect has been labeled ESD, which stands for early-stage disentanglement or, more frequently, entanglement sudden death. We review recent progress in studies focused on this phenomenon.

arXiv:0910.1396•Science•Jan 29, 2009•1,096 citations

Entanglement sudden death in a spin channel

Xiao Qiang Su, An Min Wang, XIAO SAN MA +1 more

We study the dynamic evolution of the entanglement in a spin channel with an XY-type interaction initially in an entangled state. We find that the phenomenon of entanglement sudden death (ESD) appears in the evolution of entanglement for some initial states. We calculate the entanglement and obtain the parameter regions of disentanglement for the chains with several numbers of sites. The influence of the presence of one common spin environment is also discussed.

Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Aug 29, 2007•13 citations

Manipulation of entanglement sudden death in an all-optical setup

Ashutosh Singh, Siva T. Pradyumna, A. R. P. Rau +1 more

The unavoidable and irreversible interaction between an entangled quantum system and its environment causes decoherence of the individual qubits as well as degradation of the entanglement between them. Entanglement sudden death (ESD) is the phenomenon wherein disentanglement happens in finite time even when individual qubits decohere only asymptotically in time due to noise. Prolonging the entanglement is essential for the practical realization of entanglement-based quantum information and computation protocols. For this purpose, the local NOT operation in the computational basis on one or both qubits has been proposed. Here, we formulate an all-optical experimental setup involving such NOT operations that can hasten, delay, or completely avert ESD, all depending on when it is applied during the process of decoherence. Analytical expressions for these are derived in terms of parameters of the initial state’s density matrix, whether for pure or mixed entangled states. After a discussion of the schematics of the experiment, the problem is theoretically analyzed, and simulation results of such manipulations of ESD are presented.

arXiv:1703.01159•Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Feb 27, 2017•20 citations
Evidence is found that sheds light on the origin of entanglement sudden death (ESD), a phenomenon characterized by anomalously abrupt decay of quantum entanglement. By identifying a trigger state that initiates ESD, this discovery suggests that systems involving multiple parties exhibit increased robustness against this disruptive effect.
Entanglement is known to decay even in isolated systems, an effect attributed to spontaneous emission. This fragility of entanglement can be exacerbated by entanglement sudden death (ESD), where entanglement drops to zero abruptly within a finite time. It is natural to assume that multipartite entanglement is more vulnerable to ESD, as it involves more parties experiencing spontaneous emission. In this work, we challenge this assumption and present a contrasting conclusion, asserting that multipartite entanglement demonstrates increased robustness against ESD from spontaneous emission.
Entanglement sudden death (ESD), explored through a series of works by Yu and Eberly, supports the notion of entanglement vanishing abruptly and completely at a finite time, even when the underlying open-system dynamics remain smooth. In this article, we revisit the development of ESD from bipartite origins to genuine multipartite entanglement. We first illustrate the canonical mechanism of ESD with two independently damped qubits, for which the concurrence vanishes at a finite time while populations and coherences remain nonzero. We next present our results on multipartite entanglement for generalized GHZ states under depolarization. Global and independent local depolarizing dynamics can be chosen to produce identical reduced evolution for every individual qubit, yet they yield different genuine-multipartite-entanglement sudden death times, whose ordering can reverse with the initial state. For N-qubit GHZ states, this distinction becomes asymptotically stronger since the ESD time scales as 1/N under independent local depolarization, whereas under global depolarization it approaches a finite value in the thermodynamic limit. Echoing a central lesson of Prof. Eberly's work, we report the lifetime of multipartite entanglement is not fixed by the local dynamics, but rather depends on the evolution of the joint quantum state.
The effect of entanglement sudden death (ESD) can arise when entangling interactions convert purely bipartite entangled states into more generally entangled states. As a result, ESD can also be seen as a function of partitioning of the system, not just of time, as the system partitioning defines different (multipartite) entanglement classes. Computing both geometric entanglement hierarchies and the generalization of concurrence allows one to demonstrate that different methods of analysing quantum correlations provide both qualitative and quantitatively different descriptions of two commonly cited examples of ESD. These results follow directly from the inequivalence of entanglement and quantum correlations, the latter of which can exist in a state without the former.
A new development in the dynamical behavior of elementary quantum systems is the surprising discovery that correlation between two quantum units of information called qubits can be degraded by environmental noise in a way not seen previously in studies of dissipation. This new route for dissipation attacks quantum entanglement, the essential resource for quantum information as well as the central feature in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen so-called paradox and in discussions of the fate of Schrödinger's cat. The effect has been labeled ESD, which stands for early-stage disentanglement or, more frequently, entanglement sudden death. We review recent progress in studies focused on this phenomenon.
The unavoidable and irreversible interaction between an entangled quantum system and its environment causes decoherence of the individual qubits as well as degradation of the entanglement between them. Entanglement sudden death (ESD) is the phenomenon wherein disentanglement happens in finite time even when individual qubits decohere only asymptotically in time due to noise. Prolonging the entanglement is essential for the practical realization of entanglement-based quantum information and computation protocols. For this purpose, the local NOT operation in the computational basis on one or both qubits has been proposed. Here, we formulate an all-optical experimental setup involving such NOT operations that can hasten, delay, or completely avert ESD, all depending on when it is applied during the process of decoherence. Analytical expressions for these are derived in terms of parameters of the initial state’s density matrix, whether for pure or mixed entangled states. After a discussion of the schematics of the experiment, the problem is theoretically analyzed, and simulation results of such manipulations of ESD are presented.