We analyze the decoherence induced on a single qubit by the interaction with a two-level boson system with critical internal dynamics. We explore how the decoherence process is affected by the presence of quantum phase transitions in the environment. We conclude that the dynamics of the qubit changes dramatically when the environment passes through a continuous excited state quantum phase transition. If the system-environment coupling energy equals the energy at which the environment has a critical behavior, the decoherence induced on the qubit is maximal and the fidelity tends to zero with finite size scaling obeying a power-law.
The decoherence induced on a single qubit by its interaction with the environment is studied. The environment is modelled as a scalar two-level boson system that can go through either first order or continuous excited state quantum phase transitions, depending on the values of the control parameters. A mean field method based on the Tamm-Damkoff approximation is worked out in order to understand the observed behaviour of the decoherence. Only the continuous excited state phase transition produces a noticeable effect in the decoherence of the qubit. This is maximal when the system-environment c…
In this paper, we present a theoretical description to the quantum coherence and decoherence phenomena of energy transfer in photosynthesis observed in a recent experiment [see Science 316, 1462 (2007)]. As a successive two-color laser pulses with selected frequencies cast on a sample of the photosynthetic purple bacterium Rb. sphaeroides two resonant excitations of electrons in chromophores can be generated. However, this effective two-level subsystem will interact with its protein environment and decoherence is inevitable. We describe this subsystem coupled with its environment as a dynamica…
We theoretically introduce a new kind of non-Gaussian state-----Laguerre polynomial excited coherent states by using the multiphoton catalysis which actually can be considered as a block comprising photon number operator. It is found that the normalized factor is related to the two-variable Hermite polynomials. We then investigate the nonclassical properties in terms of Mandel's Q parameter, quadrature squeezing, second correlation, and the negativity of Wigner function (WF). It is shown that all these properties are related to the amplitude of coherent state, catalysis number and unbalanced b…
We describe a new mechanism of decoherence in excited atoms as a result of thermal particles scattering by the atomic nucleus. It is based on the idea that a single scattering will produce a sudden displacement of the nucleus, which will be perceived by the electron in the atom as an instant shift in the electrostatic potential. This will leave the atom's wave-function partially projected into lower-energy states which will lead to decoherence of the atomic state. The decoherence is calculated to increase with the excitation of the atom, making observation of the effect easier in Rydberg atoms…
We reckon the behaviour of spin squeezing in tripartite unsqueezed maximally entangled Green- berger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) and W states under various decoherence channels with Kitagawa- Ueda (KU) criteria. In order to search spin squeezing sudden death (SSSD) and signatures of spin squeezing production we use bit flip, phase flip, bit-phase-flip, amplitude damping, phase damping and depolarization channels in the present study. In literature, the influence of decoherence has been studied as a destroying element. On the contrary here we investigate the positive aspect of decoherence, which prod…
Using quantum devices supported by classical computational resources is a promising approach to quantum-enabled computation. One example of such a hybrid quantum-classical approach is the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) built to utilize quantum resources for the solution of eigenvalue problems and optimizations with minimal coherence time requirements by leveraging classical computational resources. These algorithms have been placed among the candidates for first to achieve supremacy over classical computation. Here, we provide evidence for the conjecture that variational approaches can …
A three-site mesoscopic ring provides an ideal setting for an exact calculation of the bond current when the ring is threaded by an Aharonov-Bohm flux. The bond current is a measurable outcome of the coherent properties of the quantum phase. However the coherence is impeded by noise when the ring is put in contact with an environment. This coherence-to-incoherence transition is analyzed in detail here for both classical (Gaussian and telegraphic) and quantum noise and a comparative assessment is made when the quantum noise is governed by a spin-boson Hamiltonian of dissipative quantum mechanic…
We study how matter-wave interferometry with Bose-Einstein condensates is affected by hypothetical collapse models and by environmental decoherence processes. Motivated by recent atom fountain experiments with macroscopic arm separations, we focus on the observable signatures of first-order and higher-order coherence for different two-mode superposition states, and on their scaling with particle number. This can be used not only to assess the impact of environmental decoherence on many-body coherence, but also to quantify the extent to which macrorealistic collapse models are ruled out by such…
We study the dynamics of a quantum spin ensemble controlled by trains of ultrashort pulses. To model disturbances of the kicks, we consider that the spins are submitted to different kick trains which follow regular, random, stochastic or chaotic dynamical processes. These are described by dynamical systems on a torus. We study the quantum decoherence and the population relaxation of the spin ensemble induced by these classical dynamical processes disturbing the kick trains. For chaotic kick trains we show that the decoherence and the relaxation processes exhibit a signature of chaos directly r…
One-dimensional (1D) subwavelength atom arrays display multiply excited subradiant eigenstates which are reminiscent of free fermions. So far, these states have been associated with subradiant states with decay rates $\propto N^{-3}$, with N the number of atoms, which fundamentally prevents detection of their fermionic features by optical means. In this Letter, we show that free-fermion states generally appear whenever the band of singly excited states has a quadratic dispersion relation at the band edge and, hence, may also be obtained with radiant and even superradiant states. 1D arrays have…
Quantum chaos imposes universal spectral signatures that govern the thermofield dynamics of a many-body system in isolation. The fidelity between the initial and time-evolving thermofield double states exhibits as a function of time a decay, dip, ramp and plateau. Sources of decoherence give rise to a nonunitary evolution and result in information loss. Energy dephasing gradually suppresses quantum noise fluctuations and the dip associated with spectral correlations. Decoherence further delays the appearance of the dip and shortens the span of the linear ramp associated with chaotic behavior. …
We study the decoherence effect of charge noise on a single flip-flop qubit and two dipole-coupled qubits. We find that a single flip-flop qubit is highly resistant to charge noise at its sweet spots. However, due to the proximity of the charge excited states to the flip-flop logical states, the presence of charge noise greatly reduces the fidelity of two-qubit operations. We identify leakage from the qubit Hilbert space as the main culprit for the reduced gate fidelity. We also explore different bias conditions to mitigate this decoherence channel.
We present expressions demonstrating that collisional decoherence of ultracold atoms or molecules in a coherent superposition of non-degenerate quantum states is suppressed when both the real and imaginary parts of the scattering lengths for the states in the coherent superposition are equal. We show that the rate of collisional decoherence can be enhanced or suppressed by varying an external magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance. For some resonances, the suppression is very dramatic. We propose a method for measuring the scattering length of ultracold particles in excited quantum states ex…
Using the Husimi function, we investigate the phase space signatures of the excited state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs) in the Lipkin and coupled top models. We show that the time evolution of the Husimi function exhibits distinct behaviors between the different phases of an ESQPT and the presence of an ESQPT is signaled by the particular dynamics of the Husimi function. We also evaluate the long time averaged Husimi function and its associated marginal distributions, and discuss how to identify the signatures of ESQPT from their properties. Moreover, by exploiting the second moment and W…
Theoretical analysis is given of nonclassicality and decoherence of the field states generated by adding any number of photons to the squeezed thermal state (STS). Based on the fact that the squeezed number state can be considered as a single-variable Hermite polynomial excited state, the compact expression of the normalization factor is derived, a Legendre polynomial. The nonclassicality is investigated by exploring the sub-Poissonian and negative Wigner function (WF). The results show that the WF of single photon-added STS (PASTS) always has negative values at the phase space center. The dec…
Complex molecules are intriguing objects at the interface between quantum and classical phenomena. Compared to the electrons, neutrons, or atoms studied in earlier matter-wave experiments, they feature a much more complicated internal structure, but can still behave as quantum objects in their center-of-mass motion. Molecules may involve a large number of vibrational modes and highly excited rotational states, they can emit thermal photons, electrons, or even atoms, and they exhibit large cross sections for collisional interactions with residual background gases. This makes them ideal candidat…
We have studied decoherence in a system where two Josephson-junction flux qubits share a part of their superconducting loops and are inductively coupled. By tuning the flux bias condition, we control the sensitivities of the energy levels to flux noises in each qubit. The dephasing rate of the first excited state is enhanced or suppressed depending on the amplitudes and the signs of the sensitivities. We have quantified the $1/f$ flux noises and their correlations and found that the dominant contribution is by local fluctuations.
Understanding coherent dynamics of excitons, spins, or hard-core bosons (HCBs) has tremendous scientific and technological implications for light harvesting and quantum computation. Here, we study decay of excited-state population and decoherence in two models for HCBs, namely: an infinite-range HCB model governed by Markovian dynamics and a two-site HCB model with site-dependent strong potentials and subject to non-Markovian dynamics. Both models are investigated in the regimes of antiadiabaticity and strong HCB-phonon coupling with each site providing a different local optical phonon environ…
Gravitational Decoherence Estimation in Optomechanical Systems
Universidade Federal de Viçosa（维索萨联邦大学）；Universidade Estadual do Piauí（皮奥伊州立大学）；Università degli Studi di Palermo（巴勒莫大学）；University San Pablo-CEU（圣保罗-CEU大学）；University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学）
The experimental observation of a clear quantum signature of gravity is believed to be out of the grasp of current technology. However, several recent promising proposals to test the possible existence of non-classical features of gravity seem to be accessible by the state-of-art table-top experiments. Among them, some aim at measuring the gravitationally induced entanglement between two masses which would be a distinct non-classical signature of gravity. We explicitly study, in two of these proposals, the effects of decoherence on the system's dynamics by monitoring the corresponding degree o…
The longitudinal coupling of a system to the bath usually induces the pure dephasing of the system. In this paper, we study the collective dephasing induced dissipation and decoherence in a coupled-qubit system with a common bath. It is shown that, compared with the case of the same system with independent baths, the interference between the dephasing processes of different qubits induced by the common bath significantly changes the dissipation of the system. For the system of two coupled qubits, the interference leads to a faster decoherence in the non-single-excitation subspaces and a slower…
This paper describes the dynamics of a quantum two-level system (qubit) under the influence of an environment modeled by an ensemble of random matrices. In distinction to earlier work, we consider here separable couplings and focus on a regime where the decoherence time is of the same order of magnitude than the environmental Heisenberg time. We derive an analytical expression in the linear response approximation, and study its accuracy by comparison with numerical simulations. We discuss a series of unusual properties, such as purity oscillations, strong signatures of spectral correlations (i…
With a choice of boundary conditions for solutions of the Schrödinger equation, state vectors and density operators even for closed systems evolve asymmetrically in time. For open systems, standard quantum mechanics consequently predicts irreversibility and signatures of the extrinsic arrow of time. The result is a new framework for the treatment of decoherence, not based on a reduced dynamics or a master equation. As an application, using a general model we quantitatively match previously puzzling experimental results and can conclude that they are the measurable consequence of the indistingu…
Electronic decoherence processes in trans-polyacetylene oligomers are considered by explicitly computing the time dependent molecular polarization from the coupled dynamics of electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom in a mean-field mixed quantum-classical approximation. The oligomers are described by the SSH Hamiltonian and the effect of decoherence is incorporated by propagating an ensemble of quantum-classical trajectories with initial conditions obtained by sampling the Wigner distribution of the nuclear degrees of freedom. The decoherence for superpositions between the ground and exc…
We propose that an optically excited heavy hole in a quantum dot can drive the surrounding nuclear spins into a quiescent collective state, leading to significantly prolonged coherence time for the electron spin qubit. This provides a general paradigm to combat decoherence by environmental control without involving the active qubit in quantum information processing. It also serves as a unified solution to some open problems brought about by two recent experiments [X. Xu et al., Nature 459, 1105 (2009) and C. Latta et al., Nature Phys. 5, 758 (2009)].
We study the quantum dynamics of relaxation, decoherence and entropy of a qubit embedded in an anisotropic photonic crystal (PhC) through fractional calculus. These quantum measurements are investigated by analytically solving the fractional Langevin equation. The qubit with frequency lying inside the photonic band gap (PBG) exhibits the preserving behavior of energy, coherence and information amount through the steady values of excited-state probability, polarization oscillation and von Neumann entropy. This preservation does not exist in the Markovian system with qubit frequency lying outsid…
A cavity QED implementation of the non-adiabatic holonomic quantum computation in decoherence-free subspaces is proposed with nitrogen-vacancy centers coupled commonly to the whispering-gallery mode of a microsphere cavity, where a universal set of quantum gates can be realized on the qubits. In our implementation, with the assistant of the appropriate driving fields, the quantum evolution is insensitive to the cavity field state, which is only virtually excited. The implemented non-adiabatic holonomies, utilizing optical transitions in the Λ type of three-level configuration of the nitrogen-v…
We investigate the influence of an excited-state quantum phase transition (ESQPT) on the quantum speed limit (QSL) time of an open quantum system. The system consists of a central qubit coupled to a spin environment modeled by a Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) Hamiltonian. We show that when the coupling between qubit and environment is such that the latter is located at the ESQPT critical energy the qubit evolution shows a remarkable slowdown, marked by an abrupt peak in the QSL time. Interestingly, this slowdown at the ESQPT critical point is induced by the singular behavior of the qubit decoheren…
Quantum Hall edge channels at integer filling factor provide a unique test-bench to understand decoherence and relaxation of single electronic excitations in a ballistic quantum conductor. In this Letter, we obtain a full visualization of the decoherence scenario of energy (Landau) and time (Levitov) resolved single electron excitations at filling factor $ν=2$. We show that the Landau excitation exhibits a fast relaxation followed by spin-charge separation whereas the Levitov excitation only experiences spin-charge separation. We finally suggest to use Hong-Ou-Mandel type experiments to probe …
We theoretically investigate basic properties of nonequilibrium steady states of periodically-driven open quantum systems based on the full solution of the Maxwell-Bloch equation. In a resonantly driving condition, we find that the transverse relaxation, also known as decoherence, significantly destructs the formation of Floquet states while the longitudinal relaxation does not directly affect it. Furthermore, by evaluating the quasienergy spectrum of the nonequilibrium steady states, we demonstrate that the Rabi splitting can be observed as long as the decoherence time is as short as one thir…
Decoherence affects all quantum systems, natural or artificial, and is the primary obstacle impeding quantum technologies. We show theoretically that for a Rydberg qubit in a Bose condensed environment, experiments can image the system-environment interface that is central for decoherence. High precision absorption images of the condensed environment will be able to capture transient signals that show the real time build up of a mesoscopic entangled state in the environment. This is possible before decoherence sources other than the condensate itself can kick in, since qubit decoherence time-s…
We study the superposition of primordial massive particles and compute the associated decoherence time scale in the radiation dominated universe. We observe that for lighter primordial particles with masses up to $10^7\,\rm{kg}$, the corresponding decoherence time scale is significantly larger than the age of the observable universe, demonstrating that a primordial particle would persist in a pure quantum state, with its wavefunction spreading freely. For heavier particles, they can still be in a quantum state while their position uncertainties are limited by the wavelength of background photo…
Quantum annealing (QA) is one of the ways to search the ground state of the problem Hamiltonian. Here, we propose the QA scheme to search arbitrary excited states of the problem Hamiltonian. In our scheme, an $n$-th excited state of the trivial Hamiltonian is initially prepared and is adiabatically changed into an $n$-th excited state of the target Hamiltonian. Although our scheme is general such that we can search any excited states, we especially discuss the first excited state search in this paper. As a comparison, we consider a non-adiabatic scheme to find the first excited state with non-…
Bodies in relative motion, spatially separated in vacuum, experience a tiny friction force known as quantum friction. This force has eluded experimental detection so far due to its small magnitude and short range. Herein, we give quantitative details so as to track traces of the quantum friction by measuring coherences in the atom. We notice that the environmentally induced decoherence can be decomposed into contributions of different signature: corrections induced by the electromagnetic vacuum in presence of the dielectric sheet and those induced by the motion of the particle. In this directi…
We describe a high-resolution spectroscopy method, in which the detection of single excitation events is enhanced by a complete loss of coherence of a superposition of two ground states. Thereby, transitions of a single isolated atom nearly at rest are recorded efficiently with high signal-to-noise ratios. Spectra display symmetric line shapes without stray-light background from spectroscopy probes. We employ this method on a $^{25}$Mg$^+$ ion to measure one, two, and three-photon transition frequencies from the 3S ground state to the 3P, 3D, and 4P excited states, respectively. Our results ar…
We study the dynamics of spontaneous generation of coherence and photon spin-qubit entanglement or "flying qubits" in a $Λ$ system with non-degenerate lower levels. The cases of entanglement in frequency only and frequency and polarization are compared and the reduced density matrix and entanglement entropy are analyzed. We explore in detail how which-path information manifest when the energy difference between the qubit states is larger than the linewidth of the excited state suppresses coherence. A framework is provided to describe the complete dynamics of spontaneous generation of coherence…
In many important situations the dominant dephasing mechanism in cryogenic rare-earth-ion doped systems is due to magnetic field fluctuations from spins in the host crystal. Operating at a magnetic field where a transition has a zero first-order-Zeeman (ZEFOZ) shift can greatly reduce this dephasing. Here we identify the location of transitions with zero first-order Zeeman shift for optical transitions in Pr3+:YAG and for spin transitions in Er3+:Y2SiO5. The long coherence times that ZEFOZ would enable would make Pr3+:YAG a strong candidate for achieving the strong coupling regime of cavity QE…
