Quantum communication through anisotropic Heisenberg XY spin chains

We study quantum communication through an anisotropic Heisenberg XY chain in a transverse magnetic field. We find that for some time t and anisotropy parameter gamma, one can transfer a state with a relatively high fidelity. In the strong-field regime, the anisotropy does not significantly affect the fidelity while in the weak-field regime the affect is quite pronounced. The most interesting case is the intermediate regime where the oscillation of the fidelity with time is low and the high-fidelity peaks are relatively broad. This would, in principle, allow for quantum communication in realistic circumstances. Moreover, we calculate the purity, or tangle, as a measure of the entanglement between one spin and all the other spins in the chain and find that the stronger the anisotropy and exchange interaction, the more entanglement will be generated for a given time. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.