Gaussian entanglement induced by an extended thermal environment

Abstract

We study stationary entanglement between three harmonic oscillators which are dipole coupled to a one-dimensional or a three-dimensional bosonic environment. The analysis of the open-system dynamics is performed with generalized quantum Langevin equations which we solve exactly in a Fourier representation. The focus lies on Gaussian bipartite and tripartite entanglement induced by the highly non-Markovian interaction mediated by the environment. This environment-induced interaction represents an effective many-party interaction with a spatial long-range feature: A main finding is that the presence of a passive oscillator is detrimental for stationary two-mode entanglement. Furthermore, our results indicate that the environment-induced entanglement mechanism corresponds to uncontrolled feedback which is predominantly coherent at low temperatures and for moderate oscillator-environment coupling as compared to the oscillator frequency.