Decoherence of quantum discord in an asymmetric-anisotropy spin system (1208.1555v1)

Abstract: The decoherence of quantum correlation is investigated in the Heisenberg spin system with the asymmetric anisotropic interactions. The quantum entanglement and discord are used to quantify the quantumness of the correlations. By the analytical and numerical methods, we find that quantum discord decays asymptotically in time under the effects of the independent local Markovian reservoirs. This is markedly different from the sudden change of the entanglement. Before the disappearance of the entanglement, the dynamic behaviour of quantum discord is very similar to that of the entanglement. It is also shown that the discord declines rapidly for the interacting spin system compared with the case of noninteracting qubits. At an arbitrary finite temperature, the nonzero thermal discord can be enhanced by the asymmetric anisotropic interactions which induce quantum fluctuations.