Entropy for the Quantized Field in the Atom-Field Interaction: Initial Thermal Distribution

Abstract

We study the entropy of a quantized field in interaction with a two-level atom (in a pure state) when the field is initially in a mixture of two number states. We then generalise the result for a thermal state; i.e., an (infinite) statistical mixture of number states. We show that for some specific interaction times, the atom passes its purity to the field and therefore the field entropy decreases from its initial value.

Keywords

• von Neumann entropy
• mixed states
• purity