Generalized Effective Operator Formalism for Decaying Systems

TL;DR

This paper extends an effective operator formalism for decaying quantum systems, like neutral kaons, to broader systems, and proposes implementations using trapped ions to simulate such decay behaviors.

Contribution

It generalizes the effective formalism for decaying systems and suggests practical quantum simulation methods with trapped ions.

Findings

Formalism applicable to various quantum systems with decay.

Proposed trapped ion implementations for simulating kaonic decay.

Potential to study entanglement and Bell inequalities in new setups.

Abstract

Systems of neutral kaons can be used to observe entanglement and the violation of Bell inequalities. The decay of these particles poses some problems, however, and recently an effective formalism for treating such systems has been derived. We generalize this formalism and make it applicable to other quantum systems that can be made to behave in a similar manner. As examples, we discuss two possible implementations of the generalized formalism using trapped ions such as $^{171}$Yb or $^{172}$Yb, which may be used to simulate kaonic behavior in a quantum optical system.