We analytically and numerically investigate 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 nonvanishing 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 nonmonotonic function of the nonequilibrium condition as well as the bath parameters in the equilibrium setting. We also discover that weak interqubit coupling and high base temperature or chemical potential of the baths can strongly suppress the steady-state entanglement and coherence, regardless of the strength of the nonequilibrium condition. On the other hand, the energy detuning of the two qubits, when used in a compensatory way with the nonequilibrium condition, can lead to significant enhancement of the steady-state entanglement in some parameter regimes. In addition, the qubits typically have a stronger steady-state entanglement when coupled to fermion baths exchanging particles with the system than boson baths exchanging energy with the system, under similar conditions. We also identify a close connection between the energy current flowing through the system and the steady-state coherence. Preliminary investigations suggest that these results are insensitive to the form of the reservoir spectral densities in the Markovian regime. Feasible experimental realization of measuring the steady-state entanglement and coherence is discussed for the coupled qubit system in nonequilibrium environments. Our findings offer some general guidelines for optimizing the steady-state entanglement and coherence in the coupled qubit system and may find potential applications in quantum information technology.
Decoherence induced by the unwanted noise is one of the most important obstacles to be overcame in the quantum information processing. To do this, the noise power spectral density needs to be accurately characterized and then used to the quantum operation optimization. The known continuous dynamical decoupling technique can be used here as a noise probing method based on a continuous-wave resonant excitation field, followed by a gradient descent protocol. In this paper, we estimate the noise spectroscopy over a frequency range 0-530 kHz for both laser frequency and magnetic field noises by monitoring the transverse relaxation from an initial state |+sigma_x>. In the case of the laser noise, we also research into two dominant components centered at 81.78 and 163.50 kHz. We make an analogy with these noise components and driving lasers whose lineshape is assumed to be Lorentzian. This method is verified by the experimental data and finally helps to characterize the noise.
We investigate the time evolution of quantum correlations, which are measured by Gaussian quantum discord in a continuous-variable bipartite system subject to common and independent non-Markovian environments. Considering an initial two-mode Gaussian symmetric squeezed thermal state, we show that quantum correlations can be created during the non-Markovian evolution, which is different from the Markovian process. Furthermore, we find that the temperature is a key factor during the evolution in non-Markovian environments. For common reservoirs, a maximum creation of quantum correlations may occur under an appropriate temperature. For independent reservoirs, the non-Markovianity of the total system corresponds to the subsystem whose temperature is higher. In both common and independent environments, the Gaussian quantum discord is influenced by the temperature and the photon number of each mode.
A potential acceleration of a quantum open system is of fundamental interest in quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum metrology.In this paper, we investigate on the "quantum speed-up capacity" which reveals the potential ability of a quantum system to be accelerated.We explore evolution of the speed-up capacity in different quantum channels for two-qubit states.We find although the dynamics of the capacity is variety in different kinds of channels, it is positive in most situations which are considered in the context except one.We give the reasons for the different features of the dynamics.Anyway, the speed-up capacity can be improved by memory effect.We find two ways which may be used to control the capacity in experiments: selecting an appropriate coefficient of an initial state or changing memory degree of environments.
Abstract Self-testing allows one to characterise quantum systems under minimal assumptions. However, existing schemes rely on quantum nonlocality and cannot be applied to systems that are not entangled. Here, we introduce a robust method that achieves self-testing of individual systems by taking advantage of contextuality. The scheme is based on the simplest contextuality witness for the simplest contextual quantum system—the Klyachko-Can-Binicioğlu-Shumovsky inequality for the qutrit. We establish a lower bound on the fidelity of the state and the measurements as a function of the value of the witness under a pragmatic assumption on the measurements. We apply the method in an experiment on a single trapped 40 Ca + using randomly chosen measurements and perfect detection efficiency. Using the observed statistics, we obtain an experimental demonstration of self-testing of a single quantum system.
Abstract Construction of highly efficient microbial cell factories producing drop-in biofuel alkanes is severely limited due to the lack of a fast detection method against alkanes. Here we first developed a sensitive fluorescent biosensor for rapid and in situ monitoring of intracellular alkane synthesis. Using GFP as reporter, the biosensor could actively respond to the intracellular alkane products, especially for the mid- and long-chain alkanes synthesized in the recombinant Escherichia coli and give a concentration-dependent fluorescence response. Our results also suggested the feasibility of developing high-throughput strategies basing on the alkane biosensor device in E. coli and thus will greatly facilitate the application of directed evolution strategies to further improve the alkane-producing microbial cell factories.
We investigate the multipartite entanglement dynamics of a many-body system consisting of N identical two-level atoms locally embedded in their own band-gap photonic crystals. It is shown that the tripartite entanglement of this photonic-crystal system can be frozen in a stationary state. We also find that a double-sudden-change phenomenon of four-partite entanglement occurs in this photonic-crystal system during the decoherence process under certain suitable conditions.