Quantum correlation and entanglement between an ionizing system and a neighbor atom interacting directly and via a quantized field

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum correlations and entanglement between two neighboring atoms, one with an auto-ionizing level, showing that quantum correlations persist over time even without direct interaction, mediated by a shared quantized field.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of long-time quantum correlations between atoms with different auto-ionizing properties interacting via a quantized field, including a method to measure entanglement after continuum reduction.

Findings

Quantum correlations persist over time without direct atom-atom interaction.

Shared quantized field mediates quantum correlations between atoms.

Entanglement can be quantified after reducing the continuum to two levels.

Abstract

Quantum correlations between two neighbor atoms are studied. It is assumed that one atomic system comprises a single auto-ionizing level and the other atom does not contain any auto-ionizing level. The excitation of both atoms is achieved by the interaction with the same mode of the quantized field. It is shown that the long-time behavior of two atoms exhibits quantum correlations even when the atoms do not interact directly. This can be shown using the optical excitation of the neighbor atom. Also a measure of entanglement of two atoms can be applied after reduction of the continuum to two levels.