Critical slowing down and entanglement protection

Abstract: We consider a quantum device $D$ interacting with a quantum many-body environment $R$ which features a second-order phase transition at $T=0$. Exploiting the description of the critical slowing down undergone by $R$ according to the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, we explore the possibility to freeze the environment in a configuration such that its impact on the device is significantly reduced. Within this framework, we focus upon the magnetic-domain formation typical of the critical behaviour in spin models, and propose a strategy that allows one to protect the entanglement between different components of $D$ from the detrimental effects of the environment.