Quantum Decoherence Effects Research Articles

Kinematic analysis of multiple Compton scattering in quantum-entangled two-photon systems

The Stokes–Mueller method is used to analyze the scattering of entangled photon pairs in a two-photon system. This study examines the scenario where one of the photons, part of a pair of maximally entangled annihilation photons, undergoes intermediate Compton scattering before both photons are detected using Compton polarimeters. The method also accounts for potential quantum-decoherence effects resulting from Compton scattering. The analysis investigates the scattering behavior in both parallel and perpendicular planes, identifying variations in the modulation factor that affect azimuthal correlations. These variations include increases, decreases, sign changes, or disappearances at certain intermediate scattering angles. This work aims to provide theoretical results that support the testing and verification of predictions made by quantum field theory.

A quantum computing concept for 1-D elastic wave simulation with exponential speedup

SUMMARY Quantum computing has attracted considerable attention in recent years because it promises speedups that conventional supercomputers cannot offer, at least for some applications. Though existing quantum computers (QCs) are, in most cases, still too small to solve significant problems, their future impact on domain sciences is already being explored now. Within this context, we present a quantum computing concept for 1-D elastic wave propagation in heterogeneous media with two components: a theoretical formulation and an implementation on a real QC. The method rests on a finite-difference approximation, followed by a sparsity-preserving transformation of the discrete elastic wave equation to a Schrödinger equation, which can be simulated directly on a gate-based QC. An implementation on an error-free quantum simulator verifies our approach and forms the basis of numerical experiments with small problems on the real QC IBM Brisbane. The latter produce simulation results that qualitatively agree with the error-free version but are contaminated by quantum decoherence and noise effects. Complementing the discrete transformation to the Schrödinger equation by a continuous version allows the replacement of finite differences by other spatial discretization schemes, such as the spectral-element method. Anticipating the emergence of error-corrected quantum chips, we analyse the computational complexity of the best quantum simulation algorithms for future QCs. This analysis suggests that our quantum computing approach may lead to wavefield simulations that run exponentially faster than simulations on classical computers.

Quantum decoherence effects on precision measurements at DUNE and T2HK

We investigate the potential impact of neutrino quantum decoherence on the precision measurements of standard neutrino oscillation parameters in the DUNE and T2HK experiments. We show that the measurement of δCP, sin2⁡θ13 and sin2⁡θ23 is stronger effected in DUNE than in T2HK. On the other hand, DUNE would have a better sensitivity than T2HK to observe decoherence effects. By performing a combined analysis of DUNE and T2HK we show that a robust measurement of standard parameters would be possible, which is not guaranteed with DUNE data alone.

Enhancement of multimode entanglement and asymmetric steering by noiseless linear amplification

Quantum entanglement and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering is an important resource for quantum information. However, it is very fragile and prone to decoherence. Recently, it has been shown that the noiseless linear amplification (NLA) which can be applied to any channel with loss and noise can effectively counteract the effect of quantum decoherence. Besides, the initial quantum correlation can even be exceed by using this method. Thus, it is a useful tool in enhancing quantum entanglement. In this paper, we apply NLA to the tripartite GHZ entangled state and analyze quantum entanglement and steering after NLA. The results showed that the NLA can effectively improve quantum entanglement and expand the range of quantum steering. Simultaneously, they also provide useful direction for the distillation of quantum state using NLA in practical quantum communication.

Quantum decoherence and relaxation in long-baseline neutrino data

We investigate the effect of quantum decoherence and relaxation in neutrino oscillations using MINOS and T2K data. The formalism of open quantum systems is used to describe the interaction of a neutrino system with the environment, where the strength of the interaction is regulated by a decoherence parameter Γ. We assume an energy dependence parameterized by Γ = γ0(E/GeV)n, with n = −2, 0, +2, and consider three different scenarios, allowing the investigation of the effect of relaxation and of constraining the solar and atmospheric sectors to the same decoherence parameter. The MINOS and T2K data present a complementary behavior, with regard to our theoretical model, resulting in a better sensitivity for n = +2 and n = −2, respectively. We perform a combined analyses of both experimental data, which also include a reactor constraint on sin2θ13, and observe an independence of the results to the scenarios we investigate. Our analyses obtain limits on γ0 based on long-baseline data for scenarios allowing or not relaxation. We improve some previous bounds on γ0 and outline which data (solar, reactor, atmospheric, long-baseline) determine the more stringent constraints for different scenarios and energy dependencies.

Neutrino oscillation bounds on quantum decoherence

We consider quantum-decoherence effects in neutrino oscillation data. Working in the open quantum system framework we adopt a phenomenological approach that allows to parameterize the energy dependence of the decoherence effects. We consider several phenomenological models. We analyze data from the reactor experiments RENO, Daya Bay and KamLAND and from the accelerator experiments NOvA, MINOS/MINOS+ and T2K. We obtain updated constraints on the decoherence parameters quantifying the strength of damping effects, which can be as low as Γij ≲ 8 × 10−27 GeV at 90% confidence level in some cases. We also present sensitivities for the future facilities DUNE and JUNO.

Cosmic decoherence: primordial power spectra and non-Gaussianities

We study the effect of quantum decoherence on the inflationary cosmological perturbations. This process might imprint specific observational signatures revealing the quantum nature of the inflationary mechanism being related to the longstanding issue of the quantum-to-classical transition of inflationary fluctuations. Several works have investigated the effect of quantum decoherence on the statistical properties of primordial fluctuations. In particular, it has been shown that cosmic decoherence leads to corrections to the curvature power spectrum predicted by standard slow-roll inflation. Equally interesting, a non zero curvature trispectrum has been shown to be purely induced by cosmic decoherence but, surprisingly, decoherence seems not to generate any bispectrum. We further develop such an analysis by adopting a generalized form of the pointer observable, showing that decoherence does induce a non vanishing curvature bispectrum and providing a specific underlying concrete physical process. Present constraints on primordial bispectra allow to put an upper bound on the strength of the environment-system interaction. In full generality, the decoherence-induced bispectrum can be scale dependent provided one imposes the corresponding correction to the power spectrum to be scale independent. Such scale dependence on the largest cosmological scales might represent a distinctive imprint of the quantum decoherence process taking place during inflation. We also provide a criterion that allows to understand when cosmic decoherence induces scale independent corrections, independently of the type of environment considered. As a final result, we study the effect of cosmic decoherence on tensor perturbations and we derive the decoherence corrected tensor-to-scalar perturbation ratio. In specific cases, decoherence induces a blue tilted correction to the standard tensor power spectrum.

Paraconsistent Transition Systems

Often in Software Engineering, a modeling formalism has to support scenarios of inconsistency in which several requirements either reinforce or contradict each other. Paraconsistent transition systems are proposed in this paper as one such formalism: states evolve through two accessibility relations capturing weighted evidence of a transition or its absence, respectively. Their weights come from a specific residuated lattice. A category of these systems, and the corresponding algebra, is defined as providing a formal setting to model different application scenarios. One of them, dealing with the effect of quantum decoherence in quantum programs, is used for illustration purposes.

Exploring the effects of quantum decoherence on the excited-state dynamics of molecular systems

Fewest-switches surface hopping (FSSH) is employed in order to investigate the nonadiabatic excited-state dynamics of thiophene and related compounds and hence to establish a connection between the electronic system, the critical points in configuration space and the deactivation dynamics. The potential-energy surfaces of the studied molecules were calculated with complete active space self-consistent field and time-dependent density-functional theory. They are analyzed thoroughly to locate and optimize minimum-energy conical intersections, which are essential to the dynamics of the system. The influence of decoherence on the dynamics is examined by employing different decoherence schemes. We find that irrespective of the employed decoherence algorithm, the population dynamics of thiophene give results which are sound with the expectations grounded on the analysis of the potential-energy surface. A more detailed look at single trajectories as well as on the excited-state lifetimes, however, reveals a substantial dependence on how decoherence is accounted for. In order to connect these findings, we describe how ensemble averaging cures some of the overcoherence problems of uncorrected FSSH. Eventually, we identify carbon–sulfur bond cleavage as a common feature accompanying electronic transitions between different states in the simulations of all thiophene-related compounds studied in this work, which is of interest due to their relevance in organic photovoltaics.

Quantum phase transitions in the spin-boson model: Monte Carlo method versus variational approach à la Feynman

The effectiveness of the variational approach a la Feynman is proved in the spin-boson model, i.e. the simplest realization of the Caldeira-Leggett model able to reveal the quantum phase transition from delocalized to localized states and the quantum dissipation and decoherence effects induced by a heat bath. After exactly eliminating the bath degrees of freedom, we propose a trial, non local in time, interaction between the spin and itself simulating the coupling of the two level system with the bosonic bath. It stems from an Hamiltonian where the spin is linearly coupled to a finite number of harmonic oscillators whose frequencies and coupling strengths are variationally determined. We show that a very limited number of these fictitious modes is enough to get a remarkable agreement, up to very low temperatures, with the data obtained by using an approximation-free Monte Carlo approach, predicting: 1) in the Ohmic regime, a Beretzinski-Thouless-Kosterlitz quantum phase transition exhibiting the typical universal jump at the critical value; 2) in the sub-Ohmic regime ($s \leq 0.5$), mean field quantum phase transitions, with logarithmic corrections for $s=0.5$.

Squeezing of Primordial Gravitational Waves as Quantum Discord

We investigate the squeezing of primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) in terms of quantum discord. We construct a classical state of PGWs without quantum discord and compare it with the Bunch–Davies vacuum. Then it is shown that the oscillatory behavior of the angular-power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations induced by PGWs can be the signature of the quantum discord of PGWs. In addition, we discuss the effect of quantum decoherence on the entanglement and the quantum discord of PGWs for super-horizon modes. For the state of PGWs with decoherence effect, we examine the decoherence condition and the correlation condition introduced by C. Kiefer et al. (Class. Quantum Grav. 24 (2007) 1699). We show that the decoherence condition is not sufficient for the separability of PGWs and the correlation condition implies that the PGWs in the matter-dominated era have quantum discord.

Neutrino quantum decoherence due to entanglement with magnetic field

Neutrino oscillations in a constant magnetic field are considered. The backward influence of neutrinos on the environment is accounted for using the density matrix formalism. The entanglement of neutrinos with the magnetic field can destroy quantum coherent superposition of different neutrino states and thus lead to the suppression of neutrino oscillations. The master equation for the neutrino density matrix accounting for the effects of quantum decoherence due to entanglement with the magnetic field is derived.

Quantum decoherence effects in neutrino oscillations at DUNE

In this work we analyze quantum decoherence in neutrino oscillations considering the Open Quantum System framework and oscillations through matter for three neutrino families. Taking DUNE as a case study we performed sensitivity analyses for two neutrino flux configurations finding limits for the decoherence parameters. We also offer a physical interpretation for a new peak which arises at the $\nu_{e}$ appearance probability with decoherence. The best sensitivity regions found for the decoherence parameters are $\Gamma_{21}\le 1.2\times10^{-23}\,\text{GeV}$ and $\Gamma_{32}\le 7.7\times10^{-25}\,\text{GeV}$ at $90\%$ C. L.

Sterile neutrinos as a possible explanation for the upward air shower events at ANITA

The ANITA experiment has observed two unusual upgoing air shower events which are consistent with the $\tau$-lepton decay origin. However, these events are in contradiction with the standard neutrino-matter interaction models as well as the $\rm EeV$ diffuse neutrino flux limits set by the IceCube and the cosmic ray facilities like AUGER. In this paper, we have reinvestigated the possibility of using sterile neutrino hypothesis to explain the ANITA anomalous events. The diffuse flux of the sterile neutrinos is less constrained by the IceCube and AUGER experiments due to the small active-sterile mixing suppression. The quantum decoherence effect should be included for describing the neutrino flux propagating in the Earth matter, because the interactions between neutrinos and the Earth matter are very strong at the EeV scale. After several experimental approximations, we show that the ANITA anomaly itself is able to be explained by the sterile neutrino origin, but we also predict that the IceCube observatory should have more events than ANITA. It makes the sterile neutrino origin very unlikely to account for both of them simultaneously. A more solid conclusion can be drawn by the dedicated ANITA signal simulations.

Magnetoresistance of a self-assembled polyaniline single microfiber

Polyaniline microfibers were synthesized by using a self-assembly method. The electron hopping transport in this partially dedoped polyaniline single fiber showed typical bias-dependent characteristics. The magnetoresistance properties of the fiber were systematically investigated. In this microfiber, both positive and negative magnetoresistances were observed. An apparent positive magnetoresistance (> 1%) was found at 50 K. This temperature is much higher than previous reports of single or few nanofiber/tubes bundles (< 10 K). With the increase in temperature, the positive magnetoresistance was converted to the negative magnetoresistance where the transition happened at ca. 90 K. Moreover, the magnetoresistance was also sensitive to the applied bias. These observations could be explained by using the combination or competition of electron wave function shrinkage effect, quantum decoherence effect, as well as localized states coupling effect.

Observation of quantum-memory-assisted entropic uncertainty relation under open systems, and its steering

Quantum objects are susceptible to noise from their surrounding environments, interaction with which inevitably gives rise to quantum decoherence or dissipation effects. In this work, we examine how different types of local noise under an open system affect entropic uncertainty relations for two incompatible measurements. Explicitly, we observe the dynamics of the entropic uncertainty in the presence of quantum memory under two canonical categories of noisy environments: unital (phase flip) and nonunital (amplitude damping). Our study shows that the measurement uncertainty exhibits a non-monotonic dynamical behavior—that is, the amount of the uncertainty will first inflate, and subsequently decrease, with the growth of decoherence strengths in the two channels. In contrast, the uncertainty decreases monotonically with the growth of the purity of the initial state shared in prior. In order to reduce the measurement uncertainty in noisy environments, we put forward a remarkably effective strategy to steer the magnitude of uncertainty by means of a local non-unitary operation (i.e. weak measurement) on the qubit of interest. It turns out that this non-unitary operation can greatly reduce the entropic uncertainty, upon tuning the operation strength. Our investigations might thereby offer an insight into the dynamics and steering of entropic uncertainty in open systems.

Charge Generation in Organic Solar Cells: Interplay of Quantum Dynamics, Decoherence, and Recombination

The dynamics of photoinduced charge generation is studied for donor–acceptor (D–A) organic interfaces, with focus on the interplay of quantum dynamics, decoherence effects, and recombination. A coarse-grained molecular envelope function model is developed to enable the investigation of large scale D–A heterojunctions, taking into account morphology and molecular orientation as well as the underlying quantum nature of the system. Simulations show that, upon photoexcitation, Frenkel excitons delocalize over several molecules in <300 fs. At the interface, they dissociate without dwelling in intermediate charge transfer states, evincing that exciton motion and dissociation cannot be describe by point particle models. Moreover, as decoherence suppresses the excitonic quantum coherence length, it also decreases the geminate recombination rate. Although ultrafast coherent charge separation is more efficient at early times and, particularly, for excitons created at the interface, diffusion becomes important for e...

Statistical Dynamics of Coherent Quantum Systems Operating in the Presence of Quantum Noise

A statistical characterization of the quantum state of polarization for a coherent quantum system disturbed by quantum noise is presented. The composite quantum system consists of an integer number N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">s</sub> of mutually polarized photons disturbed by quantum noise which consists of an average number N of thermal radiation quanta plus the zero-point energy fluctuations. The interacting and coupled dynamics of the quantum system polarization is modeled by mutually coupled energy balanced stochastic differential equations mimicking the motion of Huygens mutually coupled pendulum clocks. The Markovian nature of the quantum noise allows one to use the Fokker-Planck (FP) apparatus to develop a coherency distribution which lives on a Clifford horn torus. Using this distribution, distributions for the Quantum State-of-Polarization, the Quantum Degree-of-Polarization, the circular moments, and the azimuthal and longitudinal polarization state jitters are derived. It is shown that the stable polarization states of quantum system equilibrium define a Bravais lattice in phase space. From this perspective, it is shown that quantum polarization interruptions are at the heart of certain quantum decoherence effects, e.g., polarization slips and flips, while pendula-like clock synchronization is at the heart of maintaining and sustaining coherency among the parts (photons) of coherent quantum systems. A classical world to quantum world “transition boundary” is identified as a function of quantum system parameters. This function is used to partition the electromagnetic spectrum into three disjoint regions of operation: a classical, a transition, and a quantum communications region. The results presented will find applications to the problem of evaluating single and multiphoton quantum communication system performance and in the system engineering design of quantum communication systems and a quantum internet connecting quantum computers.

Flavour Covariant Formalism for Resonant Leptogenesis

We present a fully flavour-covariant formalism for transport phenomena and apply it to study the flavour-dynamics of Resonant Leptogenesis (RL). We show that this formalism provides a complete and unified description of RL, consistently accounting for three distinct physical phenomena: (i) resonant mixing and (ii) coherent oscillations between different heavy-neutrino flavours, as well as (iii) quantum decoherence effects in the charged-lepton sector. We describe the necessary emergence of higher-rank tensors in flavour space, arising from the unitarity cuts of partial self-energies. Finally, we illustrate the importance of this formalism within a minimal Resonant τ-Genesis model by showing that, with the inclusion of all flavour effects in a consistent way, the final lepton asymmetry can be enhanced by up to an order of magnitude, when compared to previous partially flavour-dependent treatments.

Exact modeling of finite temperature and quantum delocalization effects on reliability of quantum-dot cellular automata

A thorough simulation study is carried out on thermal and quantum delocalization effects on the feasibility of a quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) cell. The occupation correlation of two electrons is modeled with a simple four-site array of harmonic quantum dots (QD). QD sizes range from 20 nm to 40 nm with site separations from 20 nm to 100 nm, relevant for state-of-the-art GaAs/InAs semiconductor technology. The choice of parameters introduces QD overlap, which is only simulated properly with exact treatment of strong Coulombic correlation and thermal equilibrium quantum statistics. These are taken into account with path integral Monte Carlo approach. Thus, we demonstrate novel joint effects of quantum delocalization and decoherence in QCA, but also highly sophisticated quantitative evidence supporting the traditional relations in pragmatic QCA design. Moreover, we show the effects of dimensionality and spin state, and point out the parameter space conditions, where the ‘classical’ treatment becomes invalid.