Lindblad equation for the decay of entanglement due to atmospheric scintillation

Abstract

The quantum state for the spatial degrees of freedom of photons propagating through turbulence is analyzed. The turbulent medium is modeled by a single phase screen for weak scintillation conditions and by multiple phase screens for general scintillation conditions. In the former case the process is represented by an operator product expansion, leading to an integral expression that is consistent with current models. In the latter case the evolution of the density operator is described by a first order differential equation with respect to the propagation distance. It is shown that this differential equation has the form of a Lindblad master equation. Additionally, it is shown that this differential equation can take on the form of the infinitesimal propagation equation.

17 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in J. Phys. A

References in corpus (5)

• Entanglement of Gaussian states and the applicability to quantum key distribution over fading channels
• The effect of atmospheric turbulence on entangled orbital angular momentum states
• Two-photon wave mechanics
• Infinitesimal propagation equation for decoherence of an OAM entangled biphoton in atmospheric turbulence
• The Photon Wavefunction: a covariant formulation and equivalence with QED

Cited by in corpus (6)

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• Physical meaning of the deviation scale under arbitrary turbulence strengths of optical orbital angular momentum