Entanglement dephasing dynamics driven by a bath of spins

We have studied the entanglement dynamics for a two-qubit system coupled to a spin environment of different configurations by a z-x-type interaction. Quantum dynamics of the models considered in this paper is solved analytically. Moreover, we show that simple and concise results may be obtained when certain approximations are properly made. Our purpose is to find out how the entanglement of a central spin system is affected by the pre-designed factors of the system and its environment, such as their initial states and the coupling constants between the system and its environment. Clearly, how the system is coupled to its environment will inevitably change the feature of entanglement evolution of the central spin system. Our major findings include the following: (i) the entanglement of the system of interest is sensitive to the number of spins in the environment, (ii) the initial states of the environment can profoundly affect the dynamics of the entanglement of the central spin system and (iii) the entangled environment can speed up the decay and revival of the entanglement of the central spin system. Our results exhibit some interesting features that have not been found for a bosonic environment.