Quantum discord induced by a spin chain with quantum phase transition
Zhe Sun, Xiao-Ming Lu, Lijun Song · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics · 2010
We study quantum discord induced by a quantum-critical environment. Two spin halves are independently coupled to the common environment which is modelled by the Ising spin chain in a transverse field. During the time evolution, non-zero discord is induced whereas entanglement cannot be induced due to the special initial state chosen by us. For some cases we analytically obtain quantum discord and its geometric measure. From the numerical results, one can observe that induced quantum discord increases quickly from zero to a steady value when the environment approaches the critical point. Moreover, induced discord may reach its maximum close to the critical point. The special phenomena of induced discord can be used to indicate quantum criticality. We also consider another environment modelled by the spin-1/2 XX chain with three-spin interaction, which also displays second-order quantum phase transition.