Decoherence, the Density Matrix, the Thermal State and the Classical World

Decoherence has been the basis for understanding the emergence of the classical world from its quantum underpinnings. Unfortunately the calculations establishing decoherence overshoot and, based on assumptions that break down, predict that with the passage of time the off-diagonal elements of the de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of statistical physics 2017-12, Vol.169 (5), p.889-901
Main Authors: Gaveau, Bernard, Schulman, Lawrence S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
CLASSICAL MECHANICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DENSITY MATRIX
Energy conservation
EQUILIBRIUM
Heat conductivity
Mathematical and Computational Physics
Physical Chemistry
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
QUANTUM DECOHERENCE
Quantum Physics
SCATTERING
Statistical Physics and Dynamical Systems
Theoretical
THERMODYNAMIC MODEL
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Summary:Decoherence has been the basis for understanding the emergence of the classical world from its quantum underpinnings. Unfortunately the calculations establishing decoherence overshoot and, based on assumptions that break down, predict that with the passage of time the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix become arbitrarily small. It has been recognized by some authors that the thermal state, assumed to hold for systems in equilibrium, places a bound on off diagonal terms. In this article we establish—preserving the conservation of energy, as is not the case for previous work—that indeed the thermal state is an attractor under scattering. Moreover, the bound on the off-diagonal terms present in the thermal state does not contradict everyday experience.
ISSN:0022-4715
1572-9613
DOI:10.1007/s10955-017-1901-0