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arXiv:quant-ph/0505082 · Physical Review A

Entanglement from thermal blackbody radiation

Daniel Braun

Published Dec 19, 2005• 44 citations
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Abstract

Two noninteracting quantum systems which couple to a common environment with many degrees of freedom initially in thermal equilibrium can become entangled due to the indirect interaction mediated through this heat bath. I examine here the dynamics of reservoir-induced entanglement for a heat bath consisting of a thermal electromagnetic radiation field, such as blackbody radiation or the cosmic microwave background, and show how the effect can be understood as result of an effective induced interaction.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.72.062324

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Publisher's Note: Entanglement from thermal blackbody radiation [Phys. Rev. A72, 062324 (2005)]

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Two non--interacting quantum systems which couple to a common environment with many degrees of freedom initially in thermal equilibrium can become entangled due to the indirect interaction mediated through this heat bath. I examine here the dynamics of reservoir induced entanglement for a heat bath consisting of a thermal electro--magnetic radiation field, such as black body radiation or the cosmic microwave background, and show how the effect can be understood as result of an effective induced interaction.

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Two defect particles that couple to a harmonic chain, acting as common reservoir, can become entangled even when the two defects do not directly interact and the harmonic chain is effectively a thermal reservoir for each individual defect. This dynamics is encountered for sufficiently low temperatures of the chain and depends on the initial state of the two oscillators. In particular, when each defect is prepared in a squeezed state, entanglement can be found at time scales at which the steady state of a single defect is reached. We provide a microscopic description of the coupled quantum dynamics of chain and defects. By means of numerical simulations, we explore the parameter regimes for which entanglement is found under the specific assumption that both particles couple to the same ion of the chain. This model provides the microscopic setting where bath-induced entanglement can be observed.

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Two noninteracting quantum systems which couple to a common environment with many degrees of freedom initially in thermal equilibrium can become entangled due to the indirect interaction mediated through this heat bath. I examine here the dynamics of reservoir-induced entanglement for a heat bath consisting of a thermal electromagnetic radiation field, such as blackbody radiation or the cosmic microwave background, and show how the effect can be understood as result of an effective induced interaction.
Two non--interacting quantum systems which couple to a common environment with many degrees of freedom initially in thermal equilibrium can become entangled due to the indirect interaction mediated through this heat bath. I examine here the dynamics of reservoir induced entanglement for a heat bath consisting of a thermal electro--magnetic radiation field, such as black body radiation or the cosmic microwave background, and show how the effect can be understood as result of an effective induced interaction.
Two non--interacting quantum systems which couple to a common environment with many degrees of freedom initially in thermal equilibrium can become entangled due to the indirect interaction mediated through this heat bath. Depending on the coupling to the heat bath, the entanglement can even arise quasi--instantaneously between space--like separated couples Alice--Bob. I examine here the conditions for quasi--instantaneous reservoir induced entanglement for a heat bath consisting of a thermal electro--magnetic radiation field, such as black body radiation or the cosmic microwave background.
I show that entanglement between two qubits can be generated if the two qubits interact with a common heat bath in thermal equilibrium, but do not interact directly with each other. In most situations the entanglement is created for a very short time after the interaction with the heat bath is switched on, but depending on system, coupling, and heat bath, the entanglement may persist for arbitrarily long times. This mechanism sheds new light on the creation of entanglement. A particular example of two quantum dots in a closed cavity is discussed, where the heat bath is given by the blackbody radiation.
Two qubits strongly coupled to a common bosonic reservoir can become entangled with each other, despite having no direct interaction. In equilibrium, such coupling-induced coherences can be described by the mean-force Gibbs state. Here we derive approximate, analytic expressions for the two-qubit mean-force Gibbs state, and use these to characterize equilibrium qubit-qubit entanglement mediated by a thermal reservoir. Entanglement, which is highest at lowest temperatures, is a non-monotonic function of the system-reservoir coupling strength. Moreover, we find that broadening the reservoir spectral density beyond a single mode, as is realistic for typical baths, can enhance the qubit entanglement. Our results provide a comprehensive understanding of reservoir-mediated two-qubit entanglement in thermal equilibrium and provide a benchmark to compare with numerical methods, as well as demonstrating the utility of strong system-reservoir coupling as a resource.
A new mechanism of development of quantum correlations due to the combined effects of a common heat bath and a resonant classical electromagnetic field is analyzed for a system of two two-level atoms coupled by dipole-dipole interaction. Conditions are found under which arbitrary steady-state entanglement can be created in the absence of measurement in an entangled basis. The analysis of dynamics of entanglement is focused on the effects of dipole-dipole interaction, mean number of thermal photons, degree of squeezing of thermal radiation, classical field strength, and presence of additional decay channels.
Two defect particles that couple to a harmonic chain, acting as common reservoir, can become entangled even when the two defects do not directly interact and the harmonic chain is effectively a thermal reservoir for each individual defect. This dynamics is encountered for sufficiently low temperatures of the chain and depends on the initial state of the two oscillators. In particular, when each defect is prepared in a squeezed state, entanglement can be found at time scales at which the steady state of a single defect is reached. We provide a microscopic description of the coupled quantum dynamics of chain and defects. By means of numerical simulations, we explore the parameter regimes for which entanglement is found under the specific assumption that both particles couple to the same ion of the chain. This model provides the microscopic setting where bath-induced entanglement can be observed.