Abstract

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of a pair of qubits made of two-level atoms separated in space with distance r and interacting with one common electromagnetic field but not directly with each other. Our calculation makes a weak coupling assumption, but no Born or Markov approximation. We derived a non-Markovian master equation for the evolution of the reduced density matrix of the two-qubit system after integrating out the electromagnetic field modes. It contains a Markovian part with a Lindblad type operator and a nonMarkovian contribution, the physics of which is the main focus of this study. We use the concurrence function as a measure of quantum entanglement between the two qubits. Two classes of states are studied in detail: Class A is a one parameter family of states which are the superposition of the highest energy |I〉 ≡ |11〉 and lowest energy |O〉 ≡ |00〉 states, υiz, $|A〉\equiv \sqrt{p}|I〉+\sqrt{\left(1-p\right)}|O〉$, with 0 ≤ p ≤ 1; and Class B states |B〉 are linear combinations of the symmetric $|+〉=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|01〉+|10〉\right)$ and the antisymmetric $|-〉=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|01〉-|10〉\right)$ Bell states.

© 2008 Optical Society of America