Dynamics of quantum entanglement in two time-dependent coupled harmonic oscillators

Abstract

We investigate the quantum entanglement dynamics of two coupled harmonic oscillators with a time-dependent interaction. Using the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant method, we derive the exact analytical wave functions without any perturbative or adiabatic approximations and combine this with a phase-space analysis using the Wigner function to provide a complete description of the system's quantum state evolution. We obtain general expression form for the purity and the linear entropy $S_L=1-\mathcal{P}$ for arbitrary excitation numbers $(n,m)$, allows a systematic study of entanglement for a large class of quantum states. We show that the entanglement dynamics is very sensitive to the interplay between the detuning parameters $θ$ and $\vartheta_2$, the frequency parameter $β_0$ and the coupling strength $ε$: the increase of detuning takes the system from slow irregular oscillations to fast and regular periodic behavior, and the stronger coupling systematically enhances both the amplitude and the average value of the linear entropy. Most importantly, for the resonance case $ω_1=ω_2=1$ and strong couplings $ε\approx 0.99$, the system shows robust undamped synchronized periodic oscillations of the linear entropy for all quantum states considered, indicating preserved quantum coherence without saturation. Our findings demonstrate that linear entropy is a sensitive and practical entanglement witness, and we establish explicit analytical relations between the coupling parameters of the system and its entanglement properties, which are directly relevant to quantum information processing and the control of quantum correlations in continuous-variable systems.