New J. Phys 12, 033020 (2010)

SCI

Entanglement measure and dynamics of multiqubit systems: non-Markovian versus Markovian and generalized monogamy relations

Z. X. Man, Y. J. Xia and Nguyen Ba An

In this paper, we first present a simple measure for multiqubit entanglement based on the strategy of bipartite cuts and the measure of negativity. Then, we establish generalized monogamy inequalities and associated partition-dependent residual entanglement (PRE) accounting for arbitrary partitions of a multiqubit system. By virtue of the defined quantities, we investigate the entanglement dynamics of a system of N qubits, either in the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ)-type state or in the W state, interacting with N independent reservoirs in both Markovian and non-Markovian regimes. We observe entanglement revivals of qubits at instantaneous points of disappearance or after a finite interval of abrupt vanishing due to the memory effect of non-Markovian reservoirs. We also follow the whole entanglement evolution in terms of the PRE to demonstrate the process of transition between the bipartite entanglement of all possible bipartitions and the multipartite entanglement. In particular, we show that the change in time of entanglement formats differs qualitatively for the GHZ-type and W states.