Universal decay of quantumness for photonic qubits carrying orbital angular momentum through atmospheric turbulence

TL;DR

This paper studies how quantum properties like entanglement, discord, and coherence decay for photonic qubits with orbital angular momentum as they pass through atmospheric turbulence, revealing universal decay laws.

Contribution

It introduces universal decay laws for quantum coherence and discord in photonic qubits affected by atmospheric turbulence, highlighting differences from entanglement decay.

Findings

Quantum coherence decays more robustly than entanglement and discord.

Derived universal decay laws for quantum coherence and discord.

Decay behaviors depend on initial entanglement levels.

Abstract

We investigate the decay properties of the quantumness including quantum entanglement, quantum discord and quantum coherence for two photonic qubits, which are partially entangled in their orbital angular momenta, through Kolmogorov turbulent atmosphere. It is found that the decay of quantum coherence and quantum discord may be qualitatively different from that of quantum entanglement when the initial state of two photons is not maximally entangled. We also derive two universal decay laws for quantum coherence and quantum discord, respectively, and show that the decay of quantum coherence is more robust than nonclassical correlations.