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Experimental investigation of initial system-environment correlations via trace-distance evolution

2011; American Physical Society; Volume: 84; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physreva.84.032112

1538-4446

Andrea Smirne, Davide Brivio, S. Cialdi, Bassano Vacchini, Matteo G. A. Paris,

Quantum optics and atomic interactions

The trace distance between two states of an open quantum system quantifies their distinguishability and, for a fixed environmental state, can increase above its initial value only in the presence of initial system-environment correlations. We provide experimental evidence of such a behavior. In our all-optical apparatus, we exploit spontaneous parametric down conversion as a source of polarization entangled states and a spatial light modulator to introduce in a general fashion correlations between the polarization and the momentum degrees of freedom, which act as environment.