Sudden transition between classical and quantum decoherence

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 May 21;104(20):200401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.200401. Epub 2010 May 17.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of quantum and classical correlations in the presence of nondissipative decoherence. We discover a class of initial states for which the quantum correlations, quantified by the quantum discord, are not destroyed by decoherence for times t<[symbol: see text]. In this initial time interval classical correlations decay. For t>[symbol: see text], on the other hand, classical correlations do not change in time and only quantum correlations are lost due to the interaction with the environment. Therefore, at the transition time [symbol: see text] the open system dynamics exhibits a sudden transition from classical to quantum decoherence regime.