Photonic realization of nonlocal memory effects and non-Markovian quantum probes

The study of open quantum systems is important for fundamental issues of quantum physics as well as for technological applications such as quantum information processing. Recent developments in this field have increased our basic understanding on how non-Markovian effects influence the dynamics of a...

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Published inScientific reports Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 1781
Main Authors Liu, Bi-Heng, Cao, Dong-Yang, Huang, Yun-Feng, Li, Chuan-Feng, Guo, Guang-Can, Laine, Elsi-Mari, Breuer, Heinz-Peter, Piilo, Jyrki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 07.05.2013
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects
639/624
639/766/400/482
639/766/483
639/766/483/481
Humanities and Social Sciences
Information processing
Information systems
multidisciplinary
Open systems
Probes
Science
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Summary:The study of open quantum systems is important for fundamental issues of quantum physics as well as for technological applications such as quantum information processing. Recent developments in this field have increased our basic understanding on how non-Markovian effects influence the dynamics of an open quantum system, paving the way to exploit memory effects for various quantum control tasks. Most often, the environment of an open system is thought to act as a sink for the system information. However, here we demonstrate experimentally that a photonic open system can exploit the information initially held by its environment. Correlations in the environmental degrees of freedom induce nonlocal memory effects where the bipartite open system displays, counterintuitively, local Markovian and global non-Markovian character. Our results also provide novel methods to protect and distribute entanglement and to experimentally quantify correlations in photonic environments.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep01781