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The theory of phase control of coherence, entanglement and quantum steering is developed for an optomechanical system composed of a single mode cavity containing a partially transmitting dielectric membrane and driven by short laser pulses. The closed loop in the coupling creates interfering channels which depend on the relative phase of the coupling strengths of the field modes to the mechanical mode. We show several interesting phase dependent effects such as reversible population transfer from one field mode to the other, creation of collective modes, and induced coherence without induced emission. These effects result from perfect mutual coherence between the field modes which is preserved even if one of the modes is not populated. Depending on the phase, the field modes can act on the mechanical mode collectively or individually resulting, respectively, in tripartite or bipartite entanglement. In addition, we examine the phase sensitivity of quantum steering of the mechanical mode by the field modes is investigated. Deterministic phase transfer of the steering from bipartite to collective is predicted and optimum steering corresponding to perfect EPR state can be achieved. These different types of quantum steering can be distinguished experimentally by measuring the coincidence rate between two detectors adjusted to collect photons of the output cavity modes. In particular, we find that the minima of the interference pattern of the coincidence rate signal the bipartite steering, while the maxima signal the collective steering., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures

A practical scheme for the demonstration of perfect one-sided device-independent quantum secret sharing is proposed. The scheme involves a three-mode optomechanical system in which a pair of independent cavity modes is driven by short laser pulses and interact with a movable mirror. We demonstrate that by tuning the laser frequency to the blue (anti-Stokes) sideband of the average frequency of the cavity modes, the modes become mutually coherent and then may collectively steer the mirror mode to a perfect Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen state. The scheme is shown to be experimentally feasible, it is robust against the frequency difference between the modes, mechanical thermal noise and damping, and coupling strengths of the cavity modes to the mirror., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

The role of retardation in the entanglement dynamics of two distant atoms interacting with a multi-mode field of a ring cavity is discussed. The retardation is associated with a finite time required for light to travel between the atoms located at a finite distance and between the atoms and the cavity boundaries. We explore features in the concurrence indicative of retardation and show how these features evolve depending on the initial state of the system, distance between the atoms and the number of modes to which the atoms are coupled. In particular, we consider the short-time and the long time dynamics for both the multi- and sub-wavelength distances between the atoms. It is found that the retardation effects can qualitatively modify the entanglement dynamics of the atoms not only at multi- but also at sub-wavelength distances. We follow the temporal evolution of the concurrence and find that at short times of the evolution the retardation induces periodic sudden changes of entanglement. To analyze where the entanglement lies in the space spanned by the state vectors of the system, we introduce the collective Dicke states of the atomic system that explicitly account for the sudden changes as a periodic excitation of the atomic system to the maximally entangled symmetric state. At long times, the retardation gives rise to periodic beats in the concurrence that resemble the phenomenon of collapses and revivals in the Jaynes-Cummings model. In addition, we identify parameter values and initial conditions at which the atoms remain separable or are entangled without retardation during the entire evolution time, but exhibit the phenomena of sudden birth and sudden death of entanglement when the retardation is included., Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures

We propose a practical physical system for creation of a stationary entanglement by dissipation without employing the environment engineering techniques. The system proposed is composed of two perfectly distinguishable atoms, through their significantly different transition frequencies, with only one atom addressed by an external laser field. We show that the arrangement would easily be realized in practice by trapping the atoms at the distance equal to the quarter-wavelength of a standing-wave laser field and locating one of the atoms at a node and the other at the successive antinode of the wave. The undesirable dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms, that could be large at this small distance, is adjusted to zero by a specific initial preparation of the atoms or by a specific polarization of the atomic dipole moments. Following this arrangement, we show that the dissipative relaxation can create a stationary entanglement on demand by tuning the Rabi frequency of the laser field to the difference between the atomic transition frequencies. The laser field dresses the atom and we identify that the entangled state occurs when the frequency of one of the Rabi sidebands of the driven atom tunes to frequency of the undriven atom. It is also found that this system behaves as a cascade open system where the fluorescence from the dressed atom drives the other atom with no feedback., Comment: Published version

We consider an entangled but non-interacting qubit pair a_{1} and b_{1} that are independently coupled to a set of local qubit systems, a_{I} and b_{J}, of 0-bit value, respectively. We derive rules for the transfer of entanglement from the pair a_{1}-b_{1} to an arbitrary pair a_{I}-b_{J}, for the case of qubit-number conserving local interactions. It is shown that the transfer rule depends strongly on the initial entangled state. If the initial entanglement is in the form of the Bell state corresponding to anti-correlated qubits, the sum of the square of the non-local pairwise concurrences is conserved. If the initial state is the Bell state with correlated qubits, this sum can be reduced, even to zero in some cases, to reveal a complete and abrupt loss of all non-local pairwise entanglement. We also identify that for the nonlocal bipartitions A-b_{J} involving all qubits at one location, with one qubit b_{J} at the other location, the concurrences satisfies a simple addition rule for both cases of the Bell states, that the sum of the square of the nonlocal concurrences is conserved., Comment: Published version

A detailed treatment of the entanglement dynamics of two distant but non-identical systems is presented. We study the entanglement evolution of two remote atoms interacting independently with a cavity field, as in the double Jaynes-Cummings (JC) model. The four-qubit pairwise concurrences are studied, allowing for asymmetric atom-cavity couplings and off-resonant ineractions. Counter to intuition, imperfect matching can prove advantageous to entanglement creation and evolution. For two types of initial entanglement, corresponding to spin correlated and anti-correlated Bell states \Phi and \Psi, a full, periodic and directed transfer of entanglement into a specific qubit pair is possible, for resonant interactions, depending on the choice of relative couplings. Furthermore, entanglement transfer and sudden death (ESD) can be prevented using off-resonant interactions, although for some initial states, detunings will trigger an otherwise frozen entanglement, to allow a full entanglement transfer. We confirm a conservation rule governing the pairwise entanglement between the non-interacting systems, that for the initial state \Psi the sum of the square of these concurrences (SSC) is conserved. For \Phi, the total SSC is reduced periodically, even to zero in some cases, to reveal a complete and abrupt loss of all non-local pairwise entanglement., Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures

There are two alternative methods used in literature to calculate the incoherent part of the spectrum of light scattered by an atomic system. In the first, one calculates the spectrum of the total light scattered by the system and obtains the incoherent part by subtracting the coherent part. In the second method, one introduces the fluctuation operators and obtains the incoherent part of the spectrum by taking the Fourier transform of the two time correlation function of the fluctuation operators. These two methods have been recognized for years as two completely equivalent for evaluating the incoherent part of the spectrum. In a recent paper Qing Xu et al. [Phys. Rev. A 78, 013407 (2008)] have shown that there are discrepancies between the incoherent parts of the stationary spectrum of a three-level Lambda-type system calculated with these two methods. The predicted discrepancies can be severe that over a wide rage of the Rabi frequencies and atomic decay rates, the spectrum calculated with the variance method can have negative values. This is obviously unphysical result since the fluorescence spectrum is a positively defined quantity. It represents the frequency distribution of light incoherently scattered by the atomic system. Therefore, the calculated spectrum should be positive for all frequencies independent of values of the Rabi frequencies and the damping rates. In this comment, we show that there are no discrepancies between these two methods. The equivalence of these two alternative methods leads to the same incoherent spectra that are positive for all frequencies independent of values of the parameters involved. The analytical analysis is supported by simple numerical calculations., Comment: Comments on the comment are welcome

The characteristic polynomial for a chain of dipole-dipole coupled two-level atoms with nearest-neighbour and next-nearest-neighbour interactions is developed for the study of eigenvalues and eigenvectors for single-photon excitations. We find the exact form of the polynomial in terms of the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind that is valid for an arbitrary number of atoms and coupling strengths. We then propose a technique for expressing the roots of the polynomial as a power series in the coupling constants. The general properties of the solutions are also explored, to shed some light on the general properties that the exact, analytic form of the energy eigenvalues should have. A method for deriving the eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian is also outlined., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures; minor corrections

The concept of time delayed creation of entanglement by the dissipative process of spontaneous emission is investigated. A threshold effect for the creation of entanglement is found that the initially unentangled qubits can be entangled after a finite time despite the fact that the coherence between the qubits exists for all times. This delayed creation of entanglement, that we call sudden birth of entanglement, is opposite to the currently extensively discussed sudden death of entanglement and is characteristic for transient dynamics of one-photon entangled states of the system. We determine the threshold time for the creation of entanglement and find that it is related to time at which the antisymmetric state remains the only excited state being populated. It is shown that the threshold time can be controlled by the distance between the qubits and the direction of initial excitation relative to the interatomic axis. This effect suggests a new alternative for the study of entanglement and provides an interesting resource for creation on demand of entanglement between two qubits., Comment: References added, version accepted for publication in PRA

We calculate the radiative properties for a linear dipole-coupled chain of qubits. Using the explicit energy eigenstates of the system, we find the radiation patterns for spontaneous transitions from the one-photon eigenstates to the ground state of the system. We show that depending on the excitation of a specific atom, the radiation tends to be focused either along or perpendicular to the chain. We conclude with a derivation of the total decay rate of the one-photon eigenstates, and find the interesting result that for systems where the photon wavenumber is not much larger than the interatomic spacing, up to 94% of the eigenstates are subradiant, that is, they decay significantly slower than a single atom in isolation., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures

A practical scheme for entanglement creation between distant atoms located inside a single-mode optical cavity is discussed. We show that the degree of entanglement and the time it takes for the entanglement to reach its optimum value is a sensitive function the initial conditions and the position of the atoms inside the cavity mode. It is found that the entangled properties of the two atoms can readily be extracted from dynamics of a simple two-level system. Effectively, we engineer two coupled qubits whose the dynamics are analogous to that of a driven single two-level system. It is found that spatial variations of the coupling constants actually help to create transient entanglement which may appear on the time scale much longer than that predicted for the case of equal coupling constants. When the atoms are initially prepared in an entangled state, they may remain entangled for all times. We also find that the entanglement exhibits an interesting phenomenon of diffraction when the the atoms are located between the nodes and antinodes of the cavity mode. The diffraction pattern of the entanglement varies with time and we explain this effect in terms of the quantum property of complementarity, which is manifested as a tradeoff between the knowledge of energy of the exchanged photon versus the evolution time of the system., Comment: Phys. Rev. A75, 042307 (2007)

We analyzed the efficiency of coherent population trapping (CPT) in a superposition of the ground states of three-level atoms under the influence of the decoherence process induced by a broadband thermal field. We showed that in a single atom there is no perfect CPT when the atomic transitions are affected by the thermal field. The perfect CPT may occur when only one of the two atomic transitions is affected by the thermal field. In the case when both atomic transitions are affected by the thermal field, we demonstrated that regardless of the intensity of the thermal field the destructive effect on the CPT can be circumvented by the collective behavior of the atoms. An analytic expression was obtained for the populations of the upper atomic levels which can be considered as a measure of the level of thermal decoherence. The results show that the collective interaction between the atoms can significantly enhance the population trapping in that the population of the upper state decreases with increased number of atoms. The physical origin of this feature was explained by the semiclassical dressed atom model of the system. We introduced the concept of multiatom collective coherent population trapping by demonstrating the existence of collective (entangled) states whose storage capacity is larger than that of the equivalent states of independent atoms., Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

In a recent paper Yu and Eberly [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 93}, 140404 (2004)] have shown that two initially entangled and afterwards not interacting qubits can become completely disentangled in a finite time. We study transient entanglement between two qubits coupled collectively to a multimode vacuum field and find an unusual feature that the irreversible spontaneous decay can lead to a revival of the entanglement that has already been destroyed. The results show that this feature is independent of the coherent dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms but it depends critically on whether or not the collective damping is present. We show that the ability of the system to revival entanglement via spontaneous emission relies on the presence of very different timescales for the evolution of the populations of the collective states and coherence between them., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We present a technique to identify exact analytic expressions for the multi-quantum eigenstates of a linear chain of coupled qubits. A choice of Hilbert subspaces is described which allows an exact solution of the stationary Schr\"{o}dinger equation without imposing periodic boundary conditions and without neglecting end effects, fully including the dipole-dipole nearest-neighbor interaction between the atoms. The treatment is valid for an arbitrary coherent excitation in the atomic system, any number of atoms, any size of the chain relative to the resonant wavelength and arbitrary initial conditions of the atomic system. The procedure we develop is general enough to be adopted for the study of excitation in an arbitrary array of atoms including spin chains and one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates., Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in Physical Review A; New version incorporates a minor correction made in the published paper

A system of two two-level atoms interacting with a squeezed vacuum field can exhibit stationary entanglement associated with nonclassical two-photon correlations characteristic of the squeezed vacuum field. The amount of entanglement present in the system is quantified by the well known measure of entanglement called concurrence. We find analytical formulas describing the concurrence for two identical and nonidentical atoms and show that it is possible to obtain a large degree of steady-state entanglement in the system. Necessary conditions for the entanglement are nonclassical two-photon correlations and nonzero collective decay. It is shown that nonidentical atoms are a better source of stationary entanglement than identical atoms. We discuss the optimal physical conditions for creating entanglement in the system, in particular, it is shown that there is an optimal and rather small value of the mean photon number required for creating entanglement., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures

We discuss the creation of entanglement between two two-level atoms in the dissipative process of spontaneous emission. It is shown that spontaneous emission can lead to a transient entanglement between the atoms even if the atoms were prepared initially in an unentangled state. The amount of entanglement created in the system is quantified by using two different measures: concurrence and negativity. We find analytical formulas for the evolution of concurrence and negativity in the system. We also find the analytical relation between the two measures of entanglement. The system consists of two two-level atoms which are separated by an arbitrary distance $r_{12}$ and interact with each other via the dipole-dipole interaction, and the antisymmetric state of the system is included throughout, even for small inter-atomic separations, in contrast to the small sample model. It is shown that for sufficiently large values of the dipole-dipole interaction initially the entanglement exhibits oscillatory behaviour with considerable entanglement in the peaks. For longer times the amount of entanglement is directly related to the population of the slowly decaying antisymmetric state., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

We show that two definitions of spin squeezing extensively used in the literature [M. Kitagawa and M. Ueda, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 47}, 5138 (1993) and D.J. Wineland {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 50}, 67 (1994)] give different predictions of entanglement in the two-atom Dicke system. We analyze differences between the definitions and show that the Kitagawa and Ueda's spin squeezing parameter is a better measure of entanglement than the commonly used spectroscopic spin squeezing parameter. We illustrate this relation by examining different examples of a driven two-atom Dicke system in which spin squeezing and entanglement arise dynamically. We give an explanation of the source of the difference in the prediction of entanglement using the negativity criterion for entanglement. For the examples discussed, we find that the Kitagawa and Ueda's spin squeezing parameter is the sufficient and necessary condition for entanglement., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We analyze the relation between the entanglement and spin-squeezing parameter in the two-atom Dicke model and identify the source of the discrepancy recently reported by Banerjee and Zhou et al that one can observe entanglement without spin squeezing. Our calculations demonstrate that there are two criteria for entanglement, one associated with the two-photon coherences that create two-photon entangled states, and the other associated with populations of the collective states. We find that the spin-squeezing parameter correctly predicts entanglement in the two-atom Dicke system only if it is associated with two-photon entangled states, but fails to predict entanglement when it is associated with the entangled symmetric state. This explicitly identifies the source of the discrepancy and explains why the system can be entangled without spin-squeezing. We illustrate these findings in three examples of the interaction of the system with thermal, classical squeezed vacuum and quantum squeezed vacuum fields., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure

We investigate the role of the collective antisymmetric state in entanglement creation by spontaneous emission in a system of two non-overlapping two-level atoms. We calculate and illustrate graphically populations of the collective atomic states and the Wootters entanglement measure (concurrence) for two sets of initial atomic conditions. Our calculations include the dipole-dipole interaction and a spatial separation between the atoms that the antisymmetric state of the system is included throughout even for small interatomic separations. It is shown that spontaneous emission can lead to a transient entanglement between the atoms even if the atoms were prepared initially in an unentangled state. We find that the ability of spontaneous emission to create the transient entanglement relies on the absence of population in the collective symmetric state of the system. For the initial state of only one atom excited, the entanglement builds up rapidly in time and reaches a maximum for the parameter values corresponding roughly to zero population in the symmetric state. On the other hand, for the initial condition of both atoms excited, the atoms remain unentangled until the symmetric state is depopulated. A simple physical interpretation of these results is given in terms of the diagonal states of the density matrix of the system. We also study entanglement creation in a system of two non-identical atoms of different transition frequencies. It is found that the entanglement between the atoms can be enhanced compared to that for identical atoms, and can decay with two different time scales resulting from the coherent transfer of the population from the symmetric to the antisymmetric state. In addition, we find that a decaying initial entanglement between the atoms can display a revival behaviour., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

We propose a review of recent developments on entanglement and non-classical effects in collective two-atom systems and present a uniform physical picture of the many predicted phenomena. The collective effects have brought into sharp focus some of the most basic features of quantum theory, such as nonclassical states of light and entangled states of multiatom systems. The entangled states are linear superpositions of the internal states of the system which cannot be separated into product states of the individual atoms. This property is recognized as entirely quantum-mechanical effect and have played a crucial role in many discussions of the nature of quantum measurements and, in particular, in the developments of quantum communications. Much of the fundamental interest in entangled states is connected with its practical application ranging from quantum computation, information processing, cryptography, and interferometry to atomic spectroscopy., Comment: Review article

We discuss the connection between quantum interference effects in optical beams and radiation fields emitted from atomic systems. We illustrate this connection by a study of the first- and second-order correlation functions of optical fields and atomic dipole moments. We explore the role of correlations between the emitting systems and present examples of practical methods to implement two systems with non-orthogonal dipole moments. We also derive general conditions for quantum interference in a two-atom system and for a control of spontaneous emission. The relation between population trapping and dark states is also discussed. Moreover, we present quantum dressed-atom models of cancellation of spontaneous emission, amplification on dark transitions, fluorescence quenching and coherent population trapping., Comment: To be published in Journal of Modern Optics Special Issue on Quantum Interference

It has been observed experimentally [H.R. Xia, C.Y. Ye, and S.Y. Zhu, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 77}, 1032 (1996)] that quantum interference between two molecular transitions can lead to a suppression or enhancement of spontaneous emission. This is manifested in the fluorescent intensity as a function of the detuning of the driving field from the two-photon resonance condition. Here we present a theory which explains the observed variation of the number of peaks with the mutual polarization of the molecular transition dipole moments. Using master equation techniques we calculate analytically as well as numerically the steady-state fluorescence, and find that the number of peaks depends on the excitation process. If the molecule is driven to the upper levels by a two-photon process, the fluorescent intensity consists of two peaks regardless of the mutual polarization of the transition dipole moments. If the excitation process is composed of both a two-step one-photon process and a one-step, two-photon process, then there are two peaks on transitions with parallel dipole moments and three peaks on transitions with antiparallel dipole moments. This latter case is in excellent agreement with the experiment., Comment: 11 pages, including 8 figures