Entanglement Production in Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formal framework for analyzing entanglement production in non-equilibrium quantum systems, linking entropy and entanglement dynamics, with applications to qubit dephasing and entanglement decay.

Contribution

It provides a general formalism connecting entropy and entanglement production, applicable to various quantum dissipative processes and encompassing phenomena like entanglement sudden death.

Findings

Quantitative relations between entropy and entanglement production.

Application to dephasing and decay of entanglement in qubits.

Inclusion of both Master equation and higher Hilbert space approaches.

Abstract

We define and analyse the concept of entanglement production during the evolution of a general quantum mechanical dissipative system. While it is important to minimise entropy production in order to achieve thermodynamical efficiency, maximising the rate of change of entanglement is important in quantum information processing. Quantitative relations are obtained between entropy and entanglement productions, under specific assumptions detailed in the text. We apply these to the processes of dephasing and decay of correlations between two initially entangled qubits. Both the Master equation treatment as well as the higher Hilbert space analysis are presented. Our formalism is very general and contains as special cases many reported individual instance of entanglement dynamics, such as, for example, the recently discovered notion of the sudden death of entanglement.