We study the coherence trapping of a qubit correlated initially with a non-Markovian bath in a pure dephasing channel. By considering the initial qubit-bath correlation and the bath spectral density, we find that the initial qubit-bath correlation can lead to a more efficient coherence trapping than that of the initially separable qubit-bath state. The stationary coherence in the long time limit can be maximized by optimizing the parameters of the initially correlated qubit-bath state and the bath spectral density. In addition, the effects of this initial correlation on the maximal evolution speed for the qubit trapped to its stationary coherence state are also explored.
In the long-time limit, an open quantum system coupled to a dissipative environment is believed to lose its coherence without driving or measurement. Counterintuitively, we provide a necessary condition on trapping the coherence of a two-level system entirely with a thermal bath. Based on a time-local master equation, it is found that the residue coherence survives even under a high-temperature bath as long as the long-time Lamb shift is exactly negative to the system transition frequency. This condition is generally met in the strong and even ultrastrong coupling regime that could be relaxed …
Single-photon cooperative dynamics of an assembly of two-level quantum emitters coupled by a bosonic bath are investigated. The bosonic bath is general and it can be anything as long as the exchange of excitations between quantum emitters and bath is present. In these systems, it is found that the population on the excited emitter keeps a simple and universal trapping law due to the existence of system's dark states. Different from the trapping regime caused by photonemitter dressed states, this type of trapping is only associated with the number of quantum emitters. According to the trapping …
We put forward a scheme based on reservoir engineering to protect quantum coherence from leaking to bath, in which we intensely disturb the Lorentzian bath by N harmonic oscillators. We show that the intense disturbance changes the spectrum of the bath and reduces the qubit-bath interaction. Furthermore, we give the exact time evolution with the Lorentzian spectrum by a master equation, and calculate the concurrence and survival probability of the qubits to demonstrate the effect of the intense bath disturbance on the protection of coherence. Meanwhile, we reveal the dynamic effects of counter…
We study the interplay between coherence trapping, information back-flow and the form of the reservoir spectral density for dephasing qubits. We show that stationary coherence is maximized when the qubit undergoes non-Markovian dynamics, and we elucidate the different roles played by the low and high frequency parts of the environmental spectrum. We show that the low frequencies fully determine the presence or absence of information back-flow while the high frequencies dictate the maximal amount of coherence trapping.
Ultralong trapping of light has been observed in an optically dense three-level solid medium interacting with a pair of counterpropagating coupling fields. Unlike the light trapping based on standing-wave gratings excited by the same frequency pair of counterpropagating light fields (M. Bajcsy et al., Nature 426, 638 (2003)), the present method uses resonant Raman optical field-excited spin coherence gratings. The observed light trapping time is two orders of magnitude longer than the expected value of the spin dephasing time, where the extended storage time has potential for quantum informati…
The unavoidable interaction of a quantum system with its surrounding (bath) is not always detrimental for quantum properties. For instance, under some specific conditions (that we identify as indistinguishability), a many-body system can gain internal coherences thanks to the interaction with its bath. The most famous consequence of this phenomenon is superradiance. Beyond that, the thermodynamic effects on the system of these bath-induced coherences have been mostly unexplored. We show here, for a simple and common system (a pair of two-level systems), that the energetic and entropic impacts …
A complete treatment of the entanglement of two-level systems, which evolves through the contact with a thermal bath, must include the fact that the system and the bath are not fully separable. Therefore, quantum coherent superpositions of system and bath states, which are almost never fully included in theoretical models, are invariably present when an entangled state is prepared experimentally. We show their importance for the time evolution of the entanglement of two qubits coupled to independent baths. In addition, our treatment is able to handle slow and low-temperature thermal baths.
Exact dynamics of first-order system-bath coherence in bilinear bosonic models
Ocean University of China（中国海洋大学）；University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU（巴斯克大学）；Dalian Nationalities University（大连民族大学）；University of Toronto（多伦多大学）；Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）
We theoretically investigate how population can be trapped in the excited doublet in presence of vacuum-induced coherence (VIC). We employ delayed pulses to transfer population from a metastable state to the excited states. Subsequently, spontaneous emission from the excited doublet builds coherence between them. This coherence can be probed by using chirping, which leads to the decoupling of the excited doublet from the ground state thereby ensuring population transfer via delayed pulses. Our results indicate that the existence of VIC leads to the generation of a mixed state in the excited st…
We investigate the behavior in time of the energy current between a quantum spin chain and its surrounding non-Markovian, finite temperature baths, together with its relationship to the coherence dynamics of the system. To be specific, both the system and the baths are assumed to be initially in thermal equilibrium at temperature $T_s$ and $T_b$, respectively. This model plays a fundamental role for the study of quantum system evolution towards thermal equilibrium in an open system. The non-Markovian quantum state diffusion (NMQSD) equation approach is used to calculate the dynamics of the spi…
We present a detailed study of the dynamics of correlations in non-Markovian environments, applying the hierarchy equations approach. This theoretical treatment is able to take the system-bath interaction into consideration carefully. It is shown that crosses and sudden changes of classical and quantum correlations can happen if we gradually reduce the strength of the interactions between qubits. For some special initial states, sudden transitions between classical and quantum correlations even occur.
We consider the case of a pair of particles initially in a superposition state corresponding to a separated pair of wave packets. We calculate \emph{exactly} the time development of this non-Gaussian state due to interaction with an \emph{arbitrary} heat bath. We find that coherence decays continuously, as expected. We then investigate entanglement and find that at a finite time the system becomes separable (not entangled). Thus, we see that entanglement sudden death is also prevalent in continuous variable systems which should raise concern for the designers of entangled systems.
Clusters of solid-state quantum devices have long-living metastable states of local energy minima which may be used to store quantum information. The low to vanishing rate of dissipation fulfils the prerequisite to maintain quantum coherence. Then physical symmetrization of the devices could minimize the couplings of the clusters to environmental degrees of freedom so to reduce the rate of decoherence. Combined with various other error correction mechanisms and methods, such designs and optimizations could render solid-state devices useful for quantum information processing, which have the adv…
The spectroscopic properties of a single, tightly trapped atom are studied, when the electronic levels are coupled by three laser fields in an $N$-shaped configuration of levels, whereby a $Λ$-type level system is weakly coupled to a metastable state. We show that depending on the laser frequencies the response can be tuned from coherent population trapping at two-photon resonance to novel behaviour at three photon resonance, where the metastable state can get almost unit occupation in a wide range of parameters. For certain parameter regimes the system switches spontaneously between dissipati…
We present a detailed study of the entanglement dynamics of a two-qubit system coupled to independent non-Markovian environments, employing hierarchy equations. This recently developed theoretical treatment can conveniently solve non-Markovian problems and take into consideration the correlation between the system and bath in an initial state. We concentrate on calculating the death and rebirth time points of the entanglement to obtain a general view of the concurrence curve and explore the behavior of entanglement dynamics with respect to the coupling strength, the characteristic frequency of…
In a hybrid micromaser system consisting of an optical cavity with a moving mirror connected to a low temperature thermal bath, we demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that for certain interaction times between a random atomic flux and the optomechanical cavity, vacuum phonon trapping states are generated. Furthermore, under the approach of the master equation with independent phonon and photon thermal baths, we show that the trapping of the phonons and photons is achieved for the same interaction times. The results also indicate that by increasing the cavity-oscillator coupling one…
In a recent Letter, Guarnieri et al. [1] reported on the possibility of generating steady-state coherence (SSC) in the energy basis of a two-level system by the sole action of a single thermal bath also for weak system-bath coupling and due to a composite form of this interaction. The results are based on a time-local Bloch-Redfield master equation without secular approximation and the associated set of Bloch equations, all derived in the Supplemental Material (SM) of Ref. [1]. We comment that the results reported by the authors present both technical flaws and conceptual limitations that subs…
We identify sufficient conditions on the structure of the interaction Hamiltonian between a two-level quantum system and a thermal bath which, without any external drive or coherent measurement, guarantee the generation of steady-state coherences (SSC). The SSC this way obtained remarkably turn out to be independent on the initial state of the system, which therefore could be even taken initially incoherent. We characterize in detail this phenomenon first analytically in the weak coupling regime for two paradigmatic models, and then numerically in more complex systems without any assumption on…
The question of whether quantum coherence is a resource beneficial or detrimental to the performance of quantum heat engines has been thoroughly studied but remains undecided. To isolate the contribution of coherence, we analyze the performance of a purely coherence-driven quantum heat engine, a device that does not include any heat flow during the thermodynamic cycle. The engine is powered by the coherence of a multiqubit system, where each qubit is charged via interaction with a coherence bath using the Jaynes-Cummings model. We demonstrate that optimal coherence charging and hence extractab…
We consider a protocol for the control of few-qubit registers comprising one electronic spin embedded in a nuclear spin bath. We show how to isolate a few proximal nuclear spins from the rest of the environment and use them as building blocks for a potentially scalable quantum information processor. We describe how coherent control techniques based on magnetic resonance methods can be adapted to these electronic-nuclear solid state spin systems, to provide not only efficient, high fidelity manipulation of the registers, but also decoupling from the spin bath. As an example, we analyze feasible…
We consider a quantum engine driven by repeated weak interactions with a heat bath of identical three-level atoms. This model was first introduced by Scully et al. [Science, 2003], who showed that coherence between the energy-degenerate ground states serves as a thermodynamic resource that allows operation of a thermal cycle with a coherence-dependent thermalisation temperature. We consider a similar engine out of the quasistatic limit and find that the ground-state coherence also determines the rate of thermalisation, therefore increasing the output power and the engine efficiency only when t…
We consider a finite-time quantum Otto heat engine that consists of two isochoric (thermal-contact) process, where the system is alternatively coupled to a hot squeezed and a cold thermal reservoir, and two unitary driven strokes, where the system is isolated from these two baths and its von Neumann entropy keeps constant. Both quantum inner friction and coherence are generated along the driven stroke and coherence cannot be fully erased after the finite-time hot isochore. Using full counting statistics, we present the probability distribution functions of heat injection and total work per cyc…
Coherent population trapping is a well-known quantum phenomenon in a driven $Λ$ system, with many applications across quantum optics. However, when a stochastic bath is present in addition to vacuum noise, the observed trapping is no longer perfect. Here we derive a time-convolutionless master equation describing the equilibration of the $Λ$ system in the presence of additional temporally correlated classical noise, with an unknown decay parameter. Our simulations show a one-to-one correspondence between the decay parameter and the depth of the characteristic dip in the photoluminescence spect…
We study the steady state of two coupled two-level atoms interacting with a non-equilibrium environment that consists of two heat baths at different temperatures. Specifically, we analyze four cases with respect to the configuration about the interactions between atoms and heat baths. Using secular approximation, the conventional master equation usually neglects steady-state coherence, even when the system is coupled with a non-equilibrium environment. When employing the master equation with no secular approximation, we find that the system coherence in our model, denoted by the off-diagonal t…
In contrast to the traditional Spontaneous Generated Coherence (SGC), Field Generated Coherence (FGC)-based atomic scheme is presented for spontaneous emission cancellation. It is easy to achieve externally controllable experimental trapping condition in this 4-field-driven 5-level atomic system. Consequently, due to the FGC the decay from the central dressed \emph{bare-energy-state} of the set of upper three closely spaced hyperfine decaying states of Sodium D2 line is completely cancelled under the trapping condition, exhibiting a novel phenomenon of a \textit{dark bare-energy-state}% . Exte…
We demonstrate an atom localization scheme based on monitoring of the atomic coherences. We consider atomic transitions in a Lambda configuration where the control field is a standing wave field. The probe field and the control field produce coherence between the two ground states. We show that this coherence has the same fringe pattern as produced by a Fabry-Perot interferometer and thus measurement of the atomic coherence would localize the atom. Interestingly enough the role of the cavity finesse is played by the ratio of the intensities of the pump and probe. This is in fact the reason for…
The dynamics of single electron and nuclear spins in a diamond lattice with different 13C nuclear spin concentration is investigated. It is shown that coherent control of up to three individual nuclei in a dense nuclear spin cluster is feasible. The free induction decays of nuclear spin Bell states and single nuclear coherences among 13C nuclear spins are compared and analyzed. Reduction of a free induction decay time T2* and a coherence time T2 upon increase of nuclear spin concentration has been found. For diamond material with depleted concentration of nuclear spin, T2* as long as 30 micros…
A master equation has been constructed for a global system-bath interaction both in the absence as well as presence of non-Markovian noise. For the memoryless case, it has been exactly solved for a paradigmatic class of two qubit states in high and zero temperature thermal environment. For the non-Markovian model, it has been solved for zero temperature bath. The evolution of quantum coherence and entanglement has been observed in presence of the above mentioned interactions. We show that the global part of the system-bath interaction compensates for the decoherence, resulting in slow down of …
We propose a quasi-particle description for the hierarchical equations of motion formalism for quantum dissipative dynamics systems. Not only it provides an alternative mathematical means to the existing formalism, the new protocol clarifies also explicitly the physical meanings of the auxiliary density operators and their relations to full statistics on solvation bath variables. Combining with the standard linear response theory, we construct further the hierarchical dynamics formalism for correlated spectrum of system--bath coherence. We evaluate the spectrum matrix for a demonstrative spin-…
We study the limitations on coherence evolutions under the constraints of thermodynamic laws, and focus on the optimal thermal operations (TO) reaching the bounds. For qubit case, we find a thermal operation involving only a single-mode reservoir (STO) which maintains the maximum coherence allowed by general TO. For higher dimensions, we derive general bounds on coherence merging under TO, and find STO to reach the bounds. By applying the bound to a two-qubit system, we prove that erasing correlations while preserving the marginal states is not free in the resource theory of thermodynamics. Du…
For a two-state quantum object interacting with a slow mesoscopic interacting spin bath, we show that a many-body solution of the bath dynamics conditioned on the quantum-object state leads to an efficient control scheme to recover the lost quantum-object coherence through disentanglement. We demonstrate the theory with the realistic problem of one electron spin in a bath of many interacting nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot. The spin language is easily generalized to a quantum object in contact with a bath of interacting multi-level quantum units with the caveat that it is mesoscop…
We investigate analytically and numerically the steady-state entanglement and coherence of two coupled qubits each interacting with a local boson or fermion reservoir, based on the Bloch-Redfield master equation beyond the secular approximation. We find that there is non-vanishing steady-state coherence in the nonequilibrium scenario, which grows monotonically with the nonequilibrium condition quantified by the temperature difference or chemical potential difference of the two baths. The steady-state entanglement in general is a non-monotonic function of the nonequilibrium condition as well as…
Maintaining coherence of a qubit is of vital importance for realizing a large-scale quantum computer in practice. In this work, we study the central spin decoherence problem in the $XXX$ central spin model (CSM) and focus on the quantum states with different initial entanglement, namely intra-bath entanglement or system-bath entanglement. We analytically obtain their evolutions of fidelity, entanglement, and quantum coherence. When the initial bath spins constitute an $N$-particle entangled state (the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-bath or the $W$-bath), the leading amplitudes of their fidelity e…
To control and utilize quantum features in small scale for practical applications such as quantum transport, it is crucial to gain deep understanding of quantum characteristics of states such as coherence. Here by introducing a technique that simplifies solving the dynamical equation, we study the dynamics of coherence in a system of qubits interacting with each other through a common bath at non zero temperature. Our results demonstrate that depending on initial state, environment temperature affect coherence and excitation transfer in different ways. We show that when initial state is incohe…
The influence of the initial preparation on dephasing in open quantum dynamics is studied using an exactly solvable model of a two-level system (qubit) interacting with a bosonic bath. It is found that for some classes of non-selective preparation measurements, qubit-bath correlations lead to a significant enhancement of coherence in the qubit at the initial stage of evolution. The time behavior of the qubit purity and entropy in the regime of enhancement of coherence is considered for different temperatures and coupling strengths.
We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of two coupled mechanical oscillators with general linear couplings to two uncorrelated thermal baths at temperatures $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively. We obtain the complete solution of the Heisenberg-Langevin equations, which reveal a coherent mixing among the normal modes of the oscillators as a consequence of their off-diagonal couplings to the baths. Unique renormalization aspects resulting from this mixing are discussed. Diagonal and off-diagonal (coherence) correlation functions are obtained analytically in the case of strictly Ohmic baths with differe…
Here, we study a minimal model, the three-level V system coupled to two heat baths, and investigate the role of quantum coherences in heat transport in both the transient regime and in the nonequilibrium steady-state. In our model, energy is exchanged between the baths through two parallel pathways, which can be made distinct through the nondegeneracy of excited levels (energy splitting $Δ$) and a control parameter $α$, which adjusts the strength of one of the arms. Using a nonsecular quantum master equation of Redfield form, we succeed in deriving closed-form expressions for the quantum coher…
We study an extended central spin model with an isotropic nearest-neighbour spin-exchange interaction among the bath spins. The system is controllable by external magnetic fields applied on the central spin and the bath, respectively. We construct a basis set of the Hilbert space and express the Hamiltonian of the extended model into a series of $2\times2$ block matrices to obtain the exact solution of the model successfully. Therefrom, the coherence and the spin polarization of the central spin are investigated. We find that if the couplings among the bath spins are antiferromagnetic, the cen…
Generation of steady quantumness in the presence of an environment is of utmost importance if we are to build practical quantum devices. We propose a scheme of generating steady coherence and magic in a qubit system attached to a heat bath at a certain temperature through its interaction with another qubit system attached to a spin bath. Coherence generation in the reduced qubit is always possible in this model. The steady coherence in the reduced qubit attached to the heat bath may be used to enhance the subsequent transient performance of a quantum absorption refrigerator. For the case of ge…
The loss of coherence of a quantum system coupled to a heat bath as expressed by the reduced density matrix is shown to lead to the miss-characterization of some systems as being incoherent when they are not. The spin boson problem and the harmonic oscillator with massive scalar field heat baths are given as examples of reduced incoherent density matrices which nevertheless still represent perfectly coherent systems.
Quantum correlations and coherence generated between two free spinless particles in the lattice, interacting with a common quantum phonon bath, are studied. The reduced density matrix is solved using the Markov approach. We show that the bath induces correlations between the particles. The coherence induced by the bath is studied, calculating off-diagonal elements of the density matrix, spatiotemporal dispersion, purity and quantum mutual information. We find a characteristic time-scale pointing out when this coherence is maximum. In addition, a Wigner-like distribution in the phase-space (lat…
In this study, we model a harmonic oscillator that enters an interferometer partially coupled to a thermal bath of oscillatory fields by employing a Brownian-type Lindblad master equation. More specifically, we investigate the dynamics and the variations of the thermodynamic quantities of the system at different temperatures. We recognize that although the system can remain coherent during its interaction with the thermal bath in the low-temperature limit, the system's entropy production violates the Clausius inequality. Furthermore, we argue that the system's coherence is the source of this v…
We show that the effective decay rate of Zeeman coherence, generated in a Rb87 vapor by linearly polarized laser light, increases significantly with the atomic density. We explain this phenomenon as the result of radiation trapping. Our study shows that radiation trapping must be taken into account to fully understand many electromagnetically induced transparency experiments with optically thick media.
The interaction of a quantum system with its environment causes decoherence, setting a fundamental limit on the suitability of a system for quantum information processing. However, we show that if the quantum system consists of coupled parts with different internal energy scales then the interaction of one part with a thermal bath need not lead to loss of coherence from the other. Remarkably, we find that the protected part can become more coherent when the coupling to the bath becomes stronger or the temperature is raised. Our theory will enable the design of decoherence-resistant hybrid quan…
The appearance of steady-state coherence (SSC) from system-bath interaction proves that quantum effects can appear without an external drive. Such SSC could become a resource to demonstrate quantum advantage in the applications. We predict the generation of SSC if the target system repeatedly interacts with independent and non-correlated bath elements. To describe their behavior, we use the collision model approach of system-bath interaction, where the system interacts with one bath element (initially in an incoherent state) at a time, asymptotically (in the fast-collision regime) mimicking a …
Quantum correlations between two free spinless dissipative distinguishable particles (interacting with a thermal bath) are studied analytically using the quantum master equation and tools of quantum information. Bath-induced coherence and correlations in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space are shown. We show that for temperature T > 0 the time-evolution of the reduced density matrix cannot be written as the direct product of two independent particles. We have found a time-scale that characterizes the time when the bath-induced coherence is maximum before being wiped out by dissipation (purit…
In many realizations of electron spin qubits the dominant source of decoherence is the fluctuating nuclear spin bath of the host material. The slowness of this bath lends itself to a promising mitigation strategy where the nuclear spin bath is prepared in a narrowed state with suppressed fluctuations. Here, this approach is realized for a two-electron spin qubit in a GaAs double quantum dot and a nearly ten-fold increase in the inhomogeneous dephasing time $T_2^*$ is demonstrated. Between subsequent measurements, the bath is prepared by using the qubit as a feedback loop that first measures it…
We study, in the paradigm of open quantum systems, the dynamics of quantum coherence of a static polarizable two-level atom which is coupled with a thermal bath of fluctuating electromagnetic field in the absence and presence of boundaries. The purpose is to find the conditions under which the decoherence can be inhibited effectively. We find that without boundaries, quantum coherence of the two-level atom inevitably decreases due to the effect of thermal bath. However, the quantum decoherence, in the presence of a boundary, could be effectively inhibited when the atom is transversely polariza…
