Characterizing the dynamics of quantum discord under phase damping with POVM measurements

In the analysis of quantum discord, the minimization of average entropy traditionally involved over orthogonal projective measurements may be attained at more optimal decompositions by using the positive-operator-valued measure (POVM) measurements. Taking advantage of the quantum steering ellipsoid in combination with three-element POVM optimization, we show that, for a family of two-qubit X states locally interacting with Markovian non-dissipative environments, the decay rates of quantum discord show smooth dynamical evolutions without any sudden change. This is in contrast to two-element orthogonal projective measurements, in which case the sudden change of the decay rates of quantum and classical decoherences may be a common phenomenon. Notwithstanding this, we find that a subset of X states (including the Bell diagonal states) involving POVM optimization can still preserve the sudden change character as usual.