Does decoherence mean the loss of entanglement?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the decoherence of two entangled photons in a 12-dimensional space, where one photon is in a 2-dimensional space and the other in a 6-dimensional space. The initial state is a Bell state, and the final density matrix shows a trace of 1 and a trace squared of approximately 0.5, indicating strong decoherence. The relative entropy of entanglement (REE) is calculated, showing values of 1 for the initial state and 0.9485 for the final state, suggesting that entanglement remains nearly intact despite the decoherence. The inquiry focuses on the relationship between coherence and entanglement and seeks additional metrics for measuring entanglement in mixed high-dimensional systems.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of quantum mechanics and entanglement
  • Familiarity with Bell states and their properties
  • Knowledge of density matrices and their significance in quantum systems
  • Experience with relative entropy of entanglement (REE) calculations
NEXT STEPS
  • Research advanced metrics for measuring entanglement in mixed states
  • Study the implications of decoherence on quantum systems
  • Explore the relationship between coherence and entanglement in quantum mechanics
  • Review the paper referenced in the discussion for further insights on entanglement measures
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Quantum physicists, researchers in quantum information theory, and anyone studying the effects of decoherence on entangled states will benefit from this discussion.

Haorong Wu
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TL;DR
If a pure densitry matrix becomes mixed, does it lose some entanglement?
Hello, there. I am studying a model for decoherence of two entangled photons. The space for the first photon is 2 dimensional, while that for the other one is 6 dimensional. In total, the system will be in a 12 dimensional space.

Initially, they are set to one of the Bell states, such as ##\left | 1,-1 \right > + \left | -1,1 \right>##, normalization omitted. The first photon can only take states 1 or -1, while the other photon can be in states ##\pm 3, \pm 2, \pm 1##.

Now, I have the final density matrix whose ##tr(\rho)=1## and ##tr(\rho^2)\approx 0.5## that means the decoherence is quite strong.

I want to measure the entanglement of the system. I go through couples of papers and I find that almost no available quantities can be used in a mixed system with high dimensions except relative entropy of entanglement (REE), defined by $$E_R(\rho)=\min _{\sigma \in \rm{Sep}}\rm{tr}\rho (\log \rho- \log \sigma ) $$where Sep denotes all separable states. The program shows that the initial density matrix has a REE of 1, and 0.9485 for the final density matrix.

It seems that the entanglement is almost intact. But my advisor said it is not reasonable since the system is almost decoherent.

But I am still wondering is there any direct link between coherence and entanglement? Or, do you know any other suitable quantities that can measure entanglement for a mixed high-dimensional system?

Thanks!
 
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