Narrow entanglement beats

Abstract

We study how the entanglement between two atoms can be created or modified even when they do not interact but when each of them interacts dispersively, i.e., weak and far from the resonance with a single mode of the field. Considering that regime we apply a method which makes use of a small nonlinear deformation of the usual SU(2) algebra in order to obtain the effective Hamiltonian describing correctly the dynamics for any initial states. In particular we study two cases: In the first one we consider each atom initially in a pure state and in the second case we assume that they start in a Werner state. We find that both atoms can reach, periodically, maximum entanglement if each of them starts in any eigenstate of the x-componet of the Pauli oprator, independent of the initial Fock state of the mode. Thus we find that a dispersive vacuum can generate entanglement between two two-level atoms. In the second case and when the field mode is initially in a coherent or thermal state, we find that in the high energy limit, in general, there is no entanglement between the two atoms however at well defined moments the initial entanglement is as suddenly recovered as removed. This time behavior looks like narrow beats separated by the so called entanglement dead valleys.