Quantum correlations in spin chains and highly symmetric states

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1589557 (Table of Contents)

Non-classical correlations arise in various quantum mechanical systems. Characterization and quantification of these correlations is an important and active branch of research in the field of quantum information theory. Investigation of non-classical correlations in condensed matter systems gives important insights about the characteristics of these systems. In particular, systems possessing a quantum critical point in their phase diagrams have attracted much attention due to the peculiar behavior of correlations near these points. In this thesis, we have investigated two distinct quantum spin models from the perspective of correlations and, we have discussed the correlation content of an important subclass of bipartite states. We start by an analytical calculation of the quantum discord for a system composed of spin-j and spin-1/2 subsystems possessing rotational symmetry. We have compared our results with the quantum discord of states having similar symmetries and seen that in rotationally invariant states the amount of quantum discord is much higher. Moreover, using the well known entanglement properties of these states, we have compared their quantum discord with entanglement and seen that quantum discord is higher than the entanglement. Next, we have investigated the thermal quantum correlations and entanglement in spin-1 Bose-Hubbard model with two and three particles. We have demonstrated that the energy level crossings in the ground state of the system are signalled by both the behavior of thermal quantum correlations and entanglement. Finally, we have investigated various thermal quantum and total correlations in the anisotropic XY spin-chain with transverse magnetic field. We have shown that the ability of the considered measures to estimate the critical points of this system at finite temperature strongly depends on the anisotropy parameter of the Hamiltonian. Furthermore, we have studied the effect of temperature on long-range correlations of the XY chain.