Decoherence and Matter Wave Interferometry
Quantum Physics
2011-12-09 v2
Abstract
A two-slit interference of a massive particle in the presence of environment induced decoherence is theoretically analyzed using a fully quantum mechanical calculation. The Markovian Master equation, derived from coupling the particle to a harmonic-oscillator heat bath, is used to obtain exact solutions which show the existence of an interference. Interestingly, decoherence does not affect the pattern, but only leads to a reduction in the fringe visibility.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0602052,
title = {Decoherence and Matter Wave Interferometry},
author = {Tabish Qureshi and Anu Venugopalan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0602052},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
Sufficiently revised version, to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. B