Irreversibility is one of the most intriguing concepts in physics. While microscopic physical laws are perfectly reversible, macroscopic average behavior has a preferred direction of time. According to the second law of thermodynamics, this arrow of
time is associated with a positive mean entropy production. Using a nuclear magnetic resonance setup, we measure the nonequilibrium entropy produced in an isolated spin-1/2 system following fast quenches of an external magnetic field and experimentally demonstrate that it is equal to the entropic distance, expressed by the Kullback-Leibler divergence, between a microscopic process and its time-reverse. Our result addresses the concept of irreversibility from a microscopic quantum standpoint.
In this work we use the formalism of chord functions (emph{i.e.} characteristic functions) to analytically solve quadratic non-autonomous Hamiltonians coupled to a reservoir composed by an infinity set of oscillators, with Gaussian initial state. We
analytically obtain a solution for the characteristic function under dissipation, and therefore for the determinant of the covariance matrix and the von Neumann entropy, where the latter is the physical quantity of interest. We study in details two examples that are known to show dynamical squeezing and instability effects: the inverted harmonic oscillator and an oscillator with time dependent frequency. We show that it will appear in both cases a clear competition between instability and dissipation. If the dissipation is small when compared to the instability, the squeezing generation is dominant and one can see an increasing in the von Neumann entropy. When the dissipation is large enough, the dynamical squeezing generation in one of the quadratures is retained, thence the growth in the von Neumann entropy is contained.
We analytically exploit the two-mode Gaussian states nonunitary dynamics. We show that in the zero temperature limit, entanglement sudden death (ESD) will always occur for symmetric states (where initial single mode compression is $z_0$) provided the
two mode squeezing $r_0$ satisfies $0 < r_0 < 1/2 log (cosh (2 z_0)).$ We also give the analytical expressions for the time of ESD. Finally, we show the relation between the single modes initial impurities and the initial entanglement, where we exhibit that the later is suppressed by the former.
In this work we applied a quantum circuit treatment to describe the nuclear spin relax- ation. From the Redfield theory, we were able to describe the quadrupolar relaxation as a computational process in the case of spin 3/2 systems, through a model i
n which the environment is comprised by seven qubits and three different quantum noise channels. The interaction between the environment and the spin 3/2 nuclei is then described by a quantum circuit fully compatible with the Redfield theory of relaxation. Theoretical predictions are compared to experimental data, a short review of quantum channels and relaxation in NMR qubits is also present.
In this paper we use the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to write eletronic states of a ferromagnetic system into a high-temperature paramagnetic nuclear spins. Through the control of phase and duration of radiofrequency pulses we set the NMR densit
y matrix populations, and apply the technique of quantum state tomography to experimentally obtain the matrix elements of the system, from which we calculate the temperature dependence of magnetization for different magnetic fields. The effects of the variation of temperature and magnetic field over the populations can be mapped in the angles of spins rotations, carried out by the RF pulses. The experimental results are compared to the Brillouin functions of ferromagnetic ordered systems in the mean field approximation for two cases: the mean field is given by (i) $B=B_0+lambda M$ and (ii) $B=B_0+lambda M + lambda^prime M^3$, where $B_0$ is the external magnetic field, and $lambda, lambda^prime$ are mean field parameters. The first case exhibits second order transition, whereas the second case has first order transition with temperature hysteresis. The NMR simulations are in good agreement with the magnetic predictions.
NMR quantum information processing studies rely on the reconstruction of the density matrix representing the so-called pseudo-pure states (PPS). An initially pure part of a PPS state undergoes unitary and non-unitary (relaxation) transformations duri
ng a computation process, causing a loss of purity until the equilibrium is reached. Besides, upon relaxation, the nuclear polarization varies in time, a fact which must be taken into account when comparing density matrices at different instants. Attempting to use time-fixed normalization procedures when relaxation is present, leads to various anomalies on matrices populations. On this paper we propose a method which takes into account the time-dependence of the normalization factor. From a generic form for the deviation density matrix an expression for the relaxing initial pure state is deduced. The method is exemplified with an experiment of relaxation of the concurrence of a pseudo-entangled state, which exhibits the phenomenon of sudden death, and the relaxation of the Wigner function of a pseudo-cat state.
We investigate theoretically an open dynamics for two modes of electromagnetic field inside a microwave cavity. The dynamics is Markovian and determined by two types of reservoirs: the natural reservoirs due to dissipation and temperature of the cavi
ty, and an engineered one, provided by a stream of atoms passing trough the cavity, as devised in [Pielawa emph{et al.} emph{Phys. Rev. Lett.} textbf{98}, 240401 (2007)]. We found that, depending on the reservoir parameters, the system can have distinct phases for the asymptotic entanglement dynamics: it can disentangle at finite time or it can have persistent entanglement for large times, with the transition between them characterized by the possibility of asymptotical disentanglement. Incidentally, we also discuss the effects of dissipation on the scheme proposed in the above reference for generation of entangled states.
The dissipative dynamics of Gaussian squeezed states (GSS) and coherent superposition states (CSS) are analytically obtained and compared. Time scales for sustaining different quantum properties such as squeezing, negativity of the Wigner function or
photon number distribution are calculated. Some of these characteristic times also depend on initial conditions. For example, in the particular case of squeezing, we find that while the squeezing of CSS is only visible for small enough values of the field intensity, in GSS it is independent of this quantity, which may be experimentally advantageous. The asymptotic dynamics however is quite similar as revealed by the time evolution of the fidelity between states of the two classes.
