Decoherence for a two-qubit system in a spin-chain environment

The quantum coherence and correlation dynamics for a two-qubit system in the Ising spin-chain environment are studied. A sudden change of coherence is found near the critical point, which provides us with an effective way to detect the quantum phase transition. By studying the relationship between quantum discord and coherence, we find that coherence displays the behavior of classical correlation for t < t ₀, and of quantum discord for t > t ₀, where t ₀ is the time-point of a sudden transition between classical and quantum decoherence. (paper)