Steady entanglement out of thermal equilibrium

Bruno Bellomo (1) , Mauro Antezza (1)

1 L2C - Laboratoire Charles Coulomb

We study two two-level atomic quantum systems (qubits) placed close to a body held at a temperature different from that of the surrounding walls. While at thermal equilibrium the two-qubit dynamics is characterized by non-entangled steady thermal states, we show that the absence of thermal equilibrium may bring to the generation of entangled steady states. Remarkably, this entanglement emerges from the two-qubit dissipative dynamic itself, without any further external action on the two qubits, suggesting a new protocol to create and protect entanglement which is intrinsically robust to environmental effects.

Domaines: Gaz Quantiques [cond-mat.quant-gas]; Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Bruno Bellomo, Mauro Antezza. Steady entanglement out of thermal equilibrium. EPL - Europhysics Letters, 2013, 104, pp.10006. ⟨10.1209/0295-5075/104/10006⟩. ⟨hal-00880526⟩