Effects of initial environmental correlations in the dynamics of open systems

Abstract

In this work, we study the effects of different forms of correlations of environments on the dynamics of open systems’ entanglement and discord. We consider two two-level atoms A and B interacting, respectively with two spatially separated modes a and b, each of which is in turn surrounded by a dissipative reservoir. The two modes may initially be in an entangled or classically correlated or product state with their marginal state being the same in all the cases. We compare the power of different environmental correlation forms in the revival of the atoms’ entanglement and discord in the strong atom–mode coupling regime. We also show how the dynamical behavior of the atoms’ entanglement and discord nontrivially change by the presence of initial environmental correlation in the weak atom–mode coupling regime. Finally, we reveal that initial entanglement between the modes can induce correlations between initially uncorrelated atoms.