Decoherence of two maximally entangled qubits in a lossy nonlinear cavity

Abstract

Decoherence effect on quantum entanglement of two optical qubits in a lossy cavity interacting with a nonlinear medium (Kerr nonlinearity) is analyzed. The qubits are assumed to be initially in the maximally entangled states (Bell or Bell-like states) or the maximally entangled mixed states, on the example of Werner and Werner-like states. Two kinds of measures of the entanglement are considered: the concurrence to describe a decay of the entanglement of formation of the qubits, and the negativity to determine a decay of the entanglement cost under positive-partial-transpose-preserving operations. It is observed that the Kerr nonlinearity, in the discussed decoherence model, does not affect the entanglement of the qubits initially in the Bell or Werner states, although the evolution of the qubits can depend on this nonlinearity explicitly. However, it is shown that for the initial Bell-like state and the corresponding Werner-like state, the loss of the entanglement can be periodically reduced by inserting the Kerr nonlinearity in the lossy cavity. Moreover, the relativity of the entanglement measures is demonstrated, to our knowledge for the first time, as a result of a physical process.