Phase effect on dynamics of quantum discord modulated by interaction between qubits**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11275064 and 11075050), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education, China (Grant No. 20124306110003), the Scientific Research Foundation of the Education Department of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 13C039), and the Construct Program

Abstract

We study the effects of the interaction strength and the initial phase on the dynamics of quantum discord in a two-qubit system under both spontaneous emission and dephasing noisy channels. It is shown that the time evolution of quantum discord displays quicker oscillations with increasing inter-qubit interaction strength but the effect of the initial phase closely depends on the interaction between the qubits. Only for non-zero inter-qubit interaction cases, the evolution of quantum discord is affected by the initial phase and its oscillating amplitude increases with increasing initial phase. A comparison between evolutions of quantum discord and entanglement is also made.