A symmetric measure of quantum correlation based on the Hilbert—Schmidt distance is presented in this paper. For two-qubit states, we considerably simplify the optimization procedure so that numerical evaluation can be performed efficiently. Analytical expressions for the quantum correlation are attained for some special states. We further investigate the dynamics of quantum correlation of the system qubits in the presence of independent dissipative environments. Several nontrivial aspects are demonstrated. We find that the quantum correlation can increase even if the system state is suffering from dissipative noise. Sudden changes occur, even twice, in the time evolution of quantum correlation. There exists a certain correspondence between the evolution of quantum correlation in the systems and that in the environments, and the quantum correlation in the systems will be transferred into the environments completely and asymptotically.

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.

A precision measurment of inclusive electron scattering cross sections is carried out at Jefferson Lab in the quasi-elastic region for 4He, 12C, 56Fe and 208Pb targets. The longitudinal (RL) and transverse (RT) response functions of the nucleon need to be extracted precisely in the momentum transfer range 0.55 GeV/c ≤ |q| ≤ 1.0 GeV/c. To achieve the above goal, a NaI (Tl) calorimeter is used to distinguish good electrons from background, including pions and low energy electrons rescattered from the walls of the spectrometer magnets. Due to a large set of kinematics and changes in HV settings, a number of calibrations are performed for the NaI (Tl) detector. Corrections for a few blocks of NaI (Tl) with bad or no signal are applied. The resolution of the NaI (Tl) detector after calibration reached at E = 1 GeV. The performance of the NaI (Tl) detector is compared with a simulation. The good calibration and background analysis for the NaI(Tl) detector are very important for the reduction of the systematic error of cross sections and the separation of RL and RT.