Abstract
The effect of retardation in the atom-field interaction on the dynamics of entanglement in a double Jaynes-Cummings system is investigated. We consider large cavities in which a finite time necessary for light to travel between the atoms and the cavity mirrors may result in retardation effects. Our results demonstrate the qualitatively new behaviour observable in the time evolution of entanglement when the retardation effects are included. Solutions for single and double excitations in the system are presented. We follow the temporal evolution of an initial entanglement and find that the evolution is affected drastically by the retardation effects. In particular, the harmonic oscillations of the atomic populations and the concurrence, characteristic of single-mode Jaynes-Cummings systems, are suppressed when the retardation effects are included. The process of revival of the entanglement degrades with an increasing number of the cavity modes to which the atoms are coupled. It is also found that the effect of the retardation on the doubly excited states is more drastic than that on the single-excitation states and that at relatively short times, the retardation leads to a complete distortion of entanglement carried by a doubly excited state.