Measurements, quantum discord and parity in spin 1 systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum discord and related quantum correlations in a spin 1 system coupled with another spin, introducing a new measurement characterization and analyzing states with specific symmetries.

Contribution

It introduces a characterization of projective measurements in spin 1 systems using spin averages and identifies the optimal measurements for quantum correlation measures.

Findings

Optimal measurements are generally non-spin measurements.

Parity-preserving measurements are identified for states commuting with total $S_z$.

Analytical and numerical results for quantum discord and related measures are provided.

Abstract

We consider the evaluation of the quantum discord and other related measures of quantum correlations in a system formed by a spin 1 and a complementary spin system. A characterization of general projective measurements in such system in terms of spin averages is thereby introduced, which allows to easily visualize their deviation from standard spin measurements. It is shown that the measurement optimizing these measures corresponds in general to a non-spin measurement. The important case of states that commute with the total $S_z$ spin parity is discussed in detail, and the general stationary measurements for such states (parity preserving measurements) are identified. Numerical and analytical results for the quantum discord, the geometric discord and the one way information deficit in the relevant case of a mixture of two aligned spin 1 states are also presented.