We consider an infinite one-dimensional anisotropic XY spin chain with a nearest-neighbor time-dependent Heisenberg coupling J(t) between the spins in presence of a time-dependent magnetic field h(t). We discuss a general solution for the system and present an exact solution for particular choice of J and h of practical interest. We investigate the dynamics of entanglement for different degrees of anisotropy of the system and at both zero and finite temperatures. We find that the time evolution of entanglement in the system shows nonergodic and critical behavior at zero and finite temperatures and different degrees of anisotropy. The asymptotic behavior of entanglement at the infinite time limit at zero temperature and constant J and h depends only the parameter $\lambda${}=J/h rather than the individual values of J and h for all degrees of anisotropy but changes for nonzero temperature. Furthermore, the asymptotic behavior is very sensitive to the initial values of J and h and for particular choices we may create finite asymptotic entanglement regardless of the final values of J and h. The persistence of quantum effects in the system as it evolves and as the temperature is raised is studied by monitoring the entanglement. We find that the quantum effects dominate within certain regions of the kT-$\lambda${} space that vary significantly depending on the degree of the anisotropy of the system. Particularly, the quantum effects in the Ising model case persist in the vicinity of both its critical phase transition point and zero temperature as it evolves in time. Moreover, the interplay between the different system parameters to tune and control the entanglement evolution is explored.

We study a model of two coupled two-level atoms (qubits) interacting off-resonance (at non-zero detuning) with a single mode radiation field. This system is of special interest in the field of quantum information processing (QIP) and can be realized in electron spin states in quantum dots or Rydberg atoms in optical cavities and superconducting qubits in linear resonators. We present an exact analytical solution for the time evolution of the system starting from any initial state. Utilizing this solution, we show how the entanglement sudden death (ESD), which represents a major threat to QIP, can be efficiently controlled by tuning atom-atom coupling and non-zero detuning. We demonstrate that while one of these two system parameters may not separately affect the ESD, combining the two can be very effective, as in the case of an initial correlated Bell state. However in other cases, such as a W-like initial state, they may have a competing impacts on ESD. Moreover, their combined effect can be used to create ESD in the system, as in the case of an anti-correlated initial Bell state. A clear synchronization between the population inversion collapse-revival pattern and the entanglement dynamics is observed at all system parameter combinations. Nevertheless, only for initial states that may evolve to ESD, the population inversion revival oscillations, where exchange of energy between the atoms and the field takes place, temporally coincide with the entanglement revival peaks, whereas the population collapse periods match the ESD intervals. The variation of the radiation field intensity has a clear impact on the duration of the ESD at any combination of the other system parameters.

We consider a finite one-dimensional Heisenberg $\mathit{XYZ}$ spin chain under the influence of a dissipative Lindblad environment obeying the Born-Markovian constraint in presence of an external magnetic field with closed and open boundary conditions. We present an exact numerical solution for the Lindblad master equation of the system in the Liouville space. The dynamics and asymptotic behavior of the nearest-neighbor and beyond-nearest-neighbor pairwise entanglements in the system are investigated under the effect of spatial anisotropy, temperature, system size, and different initial states. The entanglements in the free spin system exhibit nonuniform oscillatory behavior that varies significantly depending on the system size, anisotropy, and initial state. The $xy$ spatial anisotropy dictates the asymptotic behavior of the different entanglements in the system under the influence of the environment regardless of the initial state. Higher anisotropy yields higher steady-state value of the nearest-neighbor entanglement whereas a complete isotropy wipes it out. The longer range entanglements respond differently to the anisotropy variation. The anisotropy in the $z$ direction may enhance the entanglements depending on the interplay with the magnetic field applied in the same direction. As the temperature is raised, the steady state of the short-range entanglements is found to be robust within very small nonzero temperature range that depends critically on the spatial anisotropy. Moreover, the end to end entanglement transfer time and speed through the open boundary chain vary considerably based on the degree of anisotropy and temperature of the environment.

We consider the time evolution of entanglement in a finite two-dimensional transverse Ising model. The model consists of a set of seven localized spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles in a two-dimensional triangular lattice coupled through nearest-neighbor exchange interaction in the presence of an external time-dependent magnetic field. The magnetic field is applied in different function forms: step, exponential, hyperbolic, and periodic. We found that the time evolution of the entanglement shows an ergodic behavior under the effect of the time-dependent magnetic fields. Also, we found that while the step magnetic field causes great disturbance to the system, creating rapid oscillations, the system shows great controllability under the effects of the other magnetic fields where the entanglement profile follows closely the shape of the applied field even with the same frequency for periodic fields. This follow-up trend breaks down as the strength of the field, the transition constant for the exponential and hyperbolic forms, or the frequency for periodic field increase leading to rapid oscillations. We observed that the entanglement is very sensitive to the initial value of the applied periodic field: the smaller the initial value is, the less distorted the entanglement profile is. Furthermore, the effect of thermal fluctuations is very devastating to the entanglement, which decays very rapidly as the temperature increases. Interestingly, although a large value of the magnetic field strength may yield a small entanglement, the magnetic field strength was found to be more persistent against thermal fluctuations than the small field strengths. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.83.062312 ©2011 American Physical Society