English

Valleys in String Foam Suppress Quantum Coherence

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-09-11 v2

Abstract

We exhibit string contributions to the \ndS\nd{S} matrix relating in- and out- state density matrices that do not factorize as a product of SS and SS^\dagger matrices. They are associated with valley trajectories between topological defects on the string world sheet, that appear as quantum fluctuations in the space-time foam. Through their ultraviolet cut-off dependences these valleys cause non-Hamiltonian time evolution and suppress off-diagonal entries in the density matrix at large times.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9305116,
  title  = {Valleys in String Foam Suppress Quantum Coherence},
  author = {John Ellis N. E. Mavromatos and D. V. Nanopoulos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9305116},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

CERN-TH.6896/93, 12 pages, 1 figure, (final version to be published in Mod. Physics Letters)