Complementarity in atomic (finite-level quantum) systems: an information-theoretic approach

We develop an information theoretic interpretation of the number-phase complementarity in atomic systems, where phase is treated as a continuous positive operator valued measure (POVM). The relevant uncertainty principle is obtained as an upper bound on a sum of knowledge of these two observables for the case of two-level systems. A tighter bound characterizing the uncertainty relation is obtained numerically in terms of a weighted knowledge sum involving these variables. We point out that complementarity in these systems departs from mutual unbiasededness in two signalificant ways: first, the maximum knowledge of a POVM variable is less than log(dimension) bits; second, surprisingly, for higher dimensional systems, the unbiasedness may not be mutual but unidirectional in that phase remains unbiased with respect to number states, but not vice versa. Finally, we study the effect of non-dissipative and dissipative noise on these complementary variables for a single-qubit system.Comment: 16 page

Dynamics of decoherence without dissipation in a squeezed thermal bath

We study a generic open quantum system where the coupling between the system and its environment is of an energy-preserving quantum nondemolition (QND) type. We obtain the general master equation for the evolution of such a system under the influence of a squeezed thermal bath of harmonic oscillators. From the master equation it can be seen explicitly that the process involves decoherence or dephasing without any dissipation of energy. We work out the decoherence-causing term in the high and zero temperature limits and check that they match with known results for the case of a thermal bath. The decay of the coherence is quantified as well by the dynamics of the linear entropy of the system under various environmental conditions. We make a comparison of the quantum statistical properties between QND and dissipative types of evolution using a system of two-level atom and a harmonic oscillator.Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Phys. A: Math. Theor.; 23 pages, 8 figure

An environment-mediated quantum deleter

Environment-induced decoherence presents a great challenge to realizing a quantum computer. We point out the somewhat surprising fact that decoherence can be useful, indeed necessary, for practical quantum computation, in particular, for the effective erasure of quantum memory in order to initialize the state of the quantum computer. The essential point behind the deleter is that the environment, by means of a dissipative interaction, furnishes a contractive map towards a pure state. We present a specific example of an amplitude damping channel provided by a two-level system's interaction with its environment in the weak Born-Markov approximation. This is contrasted with a purely dephasing, non-dissipative channel provided by a two-level system's interaction with its environment by means of a quantum nondemolition interaction. We point out that currently used state preparation techniques, for example using optical pumping, essentially perform as quantum deleters.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Physics Letters

Entropic Leggett-Garg inequality in neutrinos and B (K) meson systems

Entropic Leggett-Garg inequality is studied in systems like neutrinos in the context of two and three flavor neutrino oscillations and in neutral $B_d$, $B_s$ and $K$ mesons. The neutrino dynamics is described with the matter effect taken into consideration. For the decohering $B/K$ meson systems, the effect of decoherence and CP violation have also been taken into account, using the techniques of open quantum systems. Enhancement in the violation with increase in the number of measurements has been found, in consistency with findings in spin-$s$ systems. The effect of decoherence is found to bring the deficit parameter $\mathcal{D}^{[n]}$ closer to its classical value zero, as expected. The violation of entropic Leggett-Garg inequality lasts for a much longer time in $K$ meson system than in $B_d$ and $B_s$ systems