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Inhibiting decoherence of two-level atom in thermal bath by presence of boundaries

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Abstract

We study, in the paradigm of open quantum systems, the dynamics of quantum coherence of a static polarizable two-level atom which is coupled with a thermal bath of fluctuating electromagnetic field in the absence and presence of boundaries. The purpose was to find the conditions under which the decoherence can be inhibited effectively. We find that without boundaries, quantum coherence of the two-level atom inevitably decreases due to the effect of thermal bath. However, the quantum decoherence, in the presence of a boundary, could be effectively inhibited when the atom is transversely polarizable and near this boundary. In particular, we find that in the case of two parallel reflecting boundaries, the atom with a parallel dipole polarization at arbitrary location between these two boundaries will be never subjected to decoherence provided we take some special distances for the two boundaries.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 11475061 and 11305058; the Open Project Program of State Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (No. Y5KF161CJ1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, and Synergetic Innovation Center for Quantum Effects and Applications, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaobao Liu, Jieci Wang & Jiliang Jing

  2. Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland

    Zehua Tian

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  1. Xiaobao Liu
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  2. Zehua Tian
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  3. Jieci Wang
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  4. Jiliang Jing
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Correspondence to Jiliang Jing.

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Liu, X., Tian, Z., Wang, J. et al. Inhibiting decoherence of two-level atom in thermal bath by presence of boundaries. Quantum Inf Process 15, 3677–3694 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-016-1343-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-016-1343-7

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