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arXiv:quant-ph/0611262 · Physical Review A

Reversible and irreversible dynamics of a qubit interacting with a small environment

Giuliano Benenti, G. Massimo Palma

Published May 21, 2007• 32 citations
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Abstract

We analyze the dynamics of a system qubit interacting by means of a sequence of pairwise collisions with an environment consisting of just two qubits. We show that the density operator of the qubits approaches a common time-averaged equilibrium state, characterized by large fluctuations, only for a random sequence of collisions. For a regular sequence of collisions the qubit states of the system and of the reservoir undergo instantaneous periodic oscillations and do not relax to a common state. Furthermore we show that pure bipartite entanglement is developed only when at least two qubits are initially in the same pure state while otherwise also genuine multipartite entanglement builds up.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.75.052110

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We analyze the dynamics of a system qubit interacting by means of a sequence of pairwise collisions with an environment consisting of just two qubits. We show that the density operator of the qubits approaches a common time-averaged equilibrium state, characterized by large fluctuations, only for a random sequence of collisions. For a regular sequence of collisions the qubit states of the system and of the reservoir undergo instantaneous periodic oscillations and do not relax to a common state. Furthermore we show that pure bipartite entanglement is developed only when at least two qubits are initially in the same pure state while otherwise also genuine multipartite entanglement builds up.
The dynamics of a single qubit interacting by a sequence of pairwise collisions with an environment consisting of just two more qubits is analyzed. Each collision is modeled in terms of a random unitary operator with a uniform probability distribution described by the uniform Haar measure. We show that the purity of the system qubit as well as the bipartite and the tripartite entanglement reach time-averaged equilibrium values characterized by large instantaneous fluctuations. These equilibrium values are independent of the order of collision among the qubits. The relaxation to equilibrium is analyzed also in terms of an ensemble average of random collision histories. Such average allows for a quantitative evaluation and interpretation of the decay constants. Furthermore a dependence of the transient dynamics on the initial degree of entanglement between the environment qubits is shown to exist. Finally the statistical properties of bipartite and tripartite entanglement are analyzed.
We analyze the dynamics of the system consisting of a qubit sequentially interacting with a chain of qubits that are initially individually in a pure random state. Each pairwise collision has been modeled as a partial swap transformation. The relaxation to equilibrium of the purity of the system qubit, averaged over all the initial states of the environment, is analytically computed. In particular, we show that the steady state depends on the parameter η of the partial swap transformation. Finally, we investigate aspects of the entanglement dynamics for qubits and show that such process can create typical multipartite entanglement between the system qubit and the qubits of the chain.
We analyze the dynamics of a system qudit of dimension $\ensuremath{\mu}$ sequentially interacting with the $\ensuremath{\nu}$-dimensional qudits of a chain playing the role of an environment. Each pairwise collision has been modeled as a random unitary transformation. The relaxation to equilibrium of the purity of the system qudit, averaged over random collisions, is analytically computed by means of a Markov chain approach. In particular, we show that the steady state is the one corresponding to the steady state for random collisions with a single environment qudit of effective dimension ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{e}=\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\mu}$. Finally, we numerically investigate aspects of the entanglement dynamics for qubits $(\ensuremath{\mu}=\ensuremath{\nu}=2)$ and show that random unitary collisions can create multipartite entanglement between the system qudit and the qudits of the chain.
We investigate decoherence channels that are modeled as a sequence of collisions of a quantum system (e.g., a qubit) with particles (e.g., qubits) of the environment. We show that collisions induce decoherence when a bipartite interaction between the system qubit and an environment (reservoir) qubit is described by the controlled-UUU unitary transformation (gate). We characterize decoherence channels and in the case of a qubit we specify the most general decoherence channel and derive a corresponding master equation. Finally, we analyze entanglement that is generated during the process of decoherence between the system and its environment.
We study the exact entanglement dynamics of two qubits coupled to a common bosonic reservoir through a pure dephasing interaction. We ask how this dynamics changes when the qubits and the reservoir already share correlations before the qubit state is prepared. In that case the system and reservoir first interact for a long time and settle into a joint equilibrium state. Only afterward is the qubit pair projected onto the desired state by a local measurement. For an Ohmic spectral density we obtain the exact reduced two qubit dynamics. Using the Wootters concurrence we show that initial correlations always speed up entanglement sudden death relative to the factorized case, and that this gap grows quadratically with the coupling strength in the weak-to-moderate coupling regime. Finally we show that a symmetric sequence of periodic π pulses applied to both qubits extends the entanglement lifetime close to a factor of seven over the range of pulse numbers studied.