Experimental entanglement redistribution under decoherence channels

When an initially entangled pair of qubits undergoes local decoherence processes, there are a number of ways in which the original entanglement can spread throughout the multipartite system consisting of the two qubits and their environments. Here, we report theoretical and experimental results rega...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2014-12, Vol.113 (24), p.240501-240501, Article 240501
Main Authors: Aguilar, G H, Valdés-Hernández, A, Davidovich, L, Walborn, S P, Souto Ribeiro, P H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Channels
Dynamical systems
Dynamics
Entanglement
Evolution
Photons
Polarization
Qubits (quantum computing)
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Summary:When an initially entangled pair of qubits undergoes local decoherence processes, there are a number of ways in which the original entanglement can spread throughout the multipartite system consisting of the two qubits and their environments. Here, we report theoretical and experimental results regarding the dynamics of the distribution of entanglement in this system. The experiment employs an all optical setup in which the qubits are encoded in the polarization degrees of freedom of two photons, and each local decoherence channel is implemented with an interferometer that couples the polarization to the path of each photon, which acts as an environment. We monitor the dynamics and distribution of entanglement and observe the transition from bipartite to multipartite entanglement and back, and show how these transitions are intimately related to the sudden death and sudden birth of entanglement. The multipartite entanglement is further analyzed in terms of three- and four-partite entanglement contributions, and genuine four-qubit entanglement is observed at some points of the evolution.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.240501