Witnessing entanglement beyond decoherence

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that continuous single-system measurements can reveal quantum entanglement hidden by decoherence, surpassing traditional ensemble-averaged detection methods.

Contribution

It introduces a method to detect entanglement through outcome distributions of single measurements, going beyond ensemble averages that suggest no entanglement.

Findings

Distributions of measurement outcomes can reveal entanglement beyond ensemble averages.

Entanglement persists in systems where average measures indicate none.

Single-shot measurements can detect entanglement surviving decoherence.

Abstract

We address the witnessing of quantum correlations beyond the limits imposed by an ensemble statistical average. By relying upon the continuous observation of a single quantum open system under the action of classical or quantum noise, we show how the statistical distribution of outcomes of physically measurable quantities provides enough information to detect entanglement in situations where a simple averaging procedure yields to a vanishing value. In this way, we are able to specify the meaning of decoherence when single read-out measurements are available, to demonstrate that these distributions are capable to predict/detect entanglement well beyond the ensemble average provided by a dephasing-sensitive mixed state. Few-spin and fluorescent systems are used to illustrate entanglement survival when a mixed state average predicts none or under the conditions where the sudden-death of entanglement is expected.