Instantaneous and dynamical decoherence. (8th March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Polonyi, Janos
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 51:Number 14(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-03-08
• Subjects: decoherence -- semiclassical approximation -- classical limit -- interference; Mathematical physics -- Periodicals; Statistical physics -- Periodicals; Quantum theory -- Periodicals; Matter -- Properties -- Periodicals; 530.105
• DOI: 10.1088/1751-8121/aab0ad
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8113

Abstract

Abstract: Two manifestations of decoherence, called instantaneous and dynamical, are investigated. The former reflects the suppression of the interference between the components of the current state while the latter reflects that within the initial state. These types of decoherence are computed in the case of the Brownian motion and the harmonic and anharmonic oscillators within the semiclassical approximation. A remarkable phenomenon, namely the opposite orientation of the time arrow of the dynamical variables compared to that of the quantum fluctuations generates a double exponential time dependence of the dynamical decoherence in the presence of a harmonic force. For the weakly anharmonic oscillator the dynamical decoherence is found to depend in a singular way on the amount of the anharmonicity.