Collapse and revival of quantum coherence for a harmonic oscillator interacting with a classical fluctuating environment
: Jacopo Trapani, Matteo Bina, Sabrina Maniscalco, Matteo G. A. Paris
Publisher: AMER PHYSICAL SOC
: 2015
: Physical Review A
: PHYSICAL REVIEW A
: PHYS REV A
: ARTN 022113
: 91
: 2
: 11
: 1050-2947
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.91.022113
We address the dynamics of nonclassicality for a quantum system interacting with a noisy fluctuating environment described by a classical stochastic field. As a paradigmatic example, we consider a harmonic oscillator initially prepared in a maximally nonclassical state, e.g., a Fock number state or a Schrodinger-cat-like state, and then coupled to either a resonant or a nonresonant external field. Stochastic modeling allows us to describe the decoherence dynamics without resorting to approximated quantum master equations and to introduce non-Markovian effects in a controlled way. A detailed comparison among different nonclassicality criteria and a thorough analysis of the decoherence time reveal a rich phenomenology whose main features may be summarized as follows: (i) Classical memory effects increase the survival time of quantum coherence and (ii) a detuning between the natural frequency of the system and the central frequency of the classical field induces revivals of quantum coherence.