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Decoherence and dissipation
of atomic Schrödinger cats
Péter Földi1, Attila Czirják
2, Mihály G. Benedict3
Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Szeged,
H-6720 Szeged, Tisza Lajos krt. 84-86, Hungary
14 April 2000
Abstract:
We investigate the time development of a superposition
of macroscopically distinct quantum states (Schrödinger cats)
in an ensemble of two-level atoms. The system is interacting with
a thermal environment of a macroscopic number of photon modes.
The final equilibrium state of the atomic subsystem
is diagonal in the energy eigenstates, and is determined by
the Boltzmann distribution.
The time scale of decoherence
is, however, generally much shorter
than that of dissipation.
The initial fast regime of the time evolution associated with the
decoherence is directed towards a classical state which is different from
the thermal equilibrium.
For general initial conditions the distance between the actual state of the
system and this classical state is decreasing fast, suggesting
an appropriate measure of decoherence.
PACS: 42.50.Dv, 42.50.Fx, 03.65.Bz
Paper No: 7thCEWQO/006
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2000-05-22