Factorization and Criticality in the Anisotropic XY Chain via Correlations

In this review, we discuss the zero and finite temperature behavior of various bipartite quantum and total correlation measures, the skew information-based quantum coherence, and the local quantum uncertainty in the thermal ground state of the one-dimensional anisotropic XY model in transverse magnetic field. We compare the ability of considered measures to correctly detect or estimate the quantum critical point and the non-trivial factorization point possessed by the spin chain.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. A review paper accepted for publication in the special issue Entanglement Entropy in the journal Entrop

Extracting Information from Qubit-Environment Correlations

Most works on open quantum systems generally focus on the reduced physical system by tracing out the environment degrees of freedom. Here we show that the qubit distributions with the environment are essential for a thorough analysis, and demonstrate that the way that quantum correlations are distributed in a quantum register is constrained by the way in which each subsystem gets correlated with the environment. For a two-qubit system coupled to a common dissipative environment $\mathcal{E}$, we show how to optimise interqubit correlations and entanglement via a quantification of the qubit-environment information flow, in a process that, perhaps surprisingly, does not rely on the knowledge of the state of the environment. To illustrate our findings, we consider an optically-driven bipartite interacting qubit $AB$ system under the action of $\mathcal{E}$. By tailoring the light-matter interaction, a relationship between the qubits early stage disentanglement and the qubit-environment entanglement distribution is found. We also show that, under suitable initial conditions, the qubits energy asymmetry allows the identification of physical scenarios whereby qubit-qubit entanglement minima coincide with the extrema of the $A\mathcal{E}$ and $B\mathcal{E}$ entanglement oscillations.Comment: 4 figures, 9 page

Continuous dynamical decoupling and decoherence-free subspaces for qubits with tunable interaction

Protecting quantum states from the decohering effects of the environment is of great importance for the development of quantum computation devices and quantum simulators. Here, we introduce a continuous dynamical decoupling protocol that enables us to protect the entangling gate operation between two qubits from the environmental noise. We present a simple model that involves two qubits which interact with each other with a strength that depends on their mutual distance and generates the entanglement among them, as well as in contact with an environment. The nature of the environment, that is, whether it acts as an individual or common bath to the qubits, is also controlled by the effective distance of qubits. Our results indicate that the introduced continuous dynamical decoupling scheme works well in protecting the entangling operation. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, the dynamics of the qubits naturally led them into a decoherence-free subspace which can be used complimentary to the continuous dynamical decoupling.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, close to published versio

Monogamy of entanglement of formation

It is well known that a particle cannot freely share entanglement with two or more particles. This restriction is generally called monogamy. However the formal quantification of such restriction is only known for some measures of entanglement and for two-level systems. The first and broadly known monogamy relation was established by Coffman, Kundu, and Wootters for the square of the concurrence. Since then, it is usually said that the entanglement of formation is not monogamous, as it does not obey the same relation. We show here that despite that, the entanglement of formation cannot be freely shared and therefore should be said to be monogamous. Furthermore, the square of the entanglement of formation does obey the same relation of the squared concurrence, a fact recently noted for three particles and extended here for N particles. Therefore the entanglement of formation is as monogamous as the concurrence. We also numerically study how the entanglement is distributed in pure states of three qubits and the relation between the sum of the bipartite entanglement and the classical correlation.Comment: Published version: small corrections to improve the text and changed the titl

Open quantum system description of singlet-triplet qubits in quantum dots

We develop a theoretical model to describe the dissipative dynamics of singlet-triplet (S-T_0) qubits in GaAs quantum dots. Using the concurrence experimentally obtained as a guide, we show that each logical qubit is coupled to its own environment because the decoherence effect can be described by independent dephasing channels. Given the correct description of the environment, we study the dynamics of concurrence as a function of the temperature, the constant coupling between the system and the environment, the preparation time, and the exchange coupling. Although the reduction of the environment coupling constant modifies the entanglement dynamics, we demonstrate that temperature emerges as a crucial variable and a variation of millikelvins significantly modifies the generation of entangled states. Furthermore, we show that the exchange coupling together with the preparation time strongly affects the entanglement dissipative dynamics.Comment: This version provides a description of the decoherence mechanism that is completely different from the published version. For a closer version see arXiv: 1701.0316

Conservation law for distributed entanglement of formation and quantum discord

We present a direct relation, based upon a monogamic principle, between entanglement of formation (EOF) and quantum discord (QD), showing how they are distributed in an arbitrary tripartite pure system. By extending it to a paradigmatic situation of a bipartite system coupled to an environment, we demonstrate that the EOF and the QD obey a conservation relation. By means of this relation we show that in the deterministic quantum computer with one pure qubit the protocol has the ability to rearrange the EOF and the QD, which implies that quantum computation can be understood on a different basis as a coherent dynamics where quantum correlations are distributed between the qubits of the computer. Furthermore, for a tripartite mixed state we show that the balance between distributed EOF and QD results in a stronger version of the strong subadditivity of entropy.Comment: Published versio

SCINTILLA A European project for the development of scintillation detectors and new technologies for nuclear security

Europe monitors transits using radiation detectors to prevent illicit trafficking of nuclear materials. The SCINTILLA project aims to develop a toolbox of innovative technologies designed to address different usage cases. This article will review the scope, approach, results of the first benchmark campaign and future plans of the SCINTILLA project.Comment: To appear on the Proceedings of the 13th ICATPP Conference on Astroparticle, Particle, Space Physics and Detectors for Physics Applications, Villa Olmo (Como, Italy), 23--27 October, 2013, to be published by World Scientific (Singapore