Entanglement of a Multiparticle Schroedinger Cat State

Abstract

We characterize the degree of entanglement of a subsystem of $k$ particles in a $N$-two level system ($k\leq N/2$) initially prepared in a mesoscopic superposition $|ψ>=\int dθf(θ) (|ϕ_{1}(θ)>^{\otimes N}+|ϕ_{2}(θ)>^{\otimes N})$, where $f(θ)$ is a gaussian or a delta function, subject to the time evolution described by a dephasing channel. Negativity is used as a measure of entanglement for such system. For an arbitrary number of particles $N$, numerical results are given for the full time evolution up to ten particles. Analytical results are obtained for short times and asymptotic time regimes. We show that negativity is initially proportional to the square root of the product of the number of particles in each partition, the overlap ${|<ϕ_1(θ)|ϕ_2(θ)>|}^2$ and the coupling to the environment. Asymptotically, negativity tends to zero, a necessary condition for separability.