dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaReduction of the Wavepacket: How Long Does it Take?
| Authors | Wojciech H. Zurek |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0302044 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0302044 |
Abstract
We show that the ``reduction of the wavepacket'' caused by the interaction with the environment occurs on a timescale which is typically many orders of magnitude shorter than the relaxation timescale $\tau$. In particular, we show that in a system interacting with a ``canonical'' heat bath of harmonic oscillators decorrelation timescale of two pieces of the wave-packet separated by $N$ thermal de Broglie wavelengths is approximately $\tau/N^2$. Therefore, in the classical limit $\hbar \to 0$ dynamical reversibility $(\tau \to \infty)$ is compatible with ``instantaneous'' coherence loss.
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"abstract": "We show that the ``reduction of the wavepacket\u0027\u0027 caused by the interaction\nwith the environment occurs on a timescale which is typically many orders of\nmagnitude shorter than the relaxation timescale $\\tau$. In particular, we show\nthat in a system interacting with a ``canonical\u0027\u0027 heat bath of harmonic\noscillators decorrelation timescale of two pieces of the wave-packet separated\nby $N$ thermal de Broglie wavelengths is approximately $\\tau/N^2$. Therefore,\nin the classical limit $\\hbar \\to 0$ dynamical reversibility $(\\tau \\to\n\\infty)$ is compatible with ``instantaneous\u0027\u0027 coherence loss.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0302044",
"authors": [
"Wojciech H. Zurek"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "Reduction of the Wavepacket: How Long Does it Take?",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0302044"
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