Related papers: Thermodynamics of decoherence
Quantum coherence, the ability of a quantum system to be in a superposition of orthogonal quantum states, is a distinct feature of the quantum mechanics, thus marking a deviation from classical physics. Coherence finds its applications in…
Quantum open systems evolve according to completely positive, trace preserving maps acting on the density operator, which can equivalently be unraveled in term of so-called quantum trajectories. These stochastic sequences of pure states…
In Newtonian mechanics, any closed-system dynamics of a composite system in a microstate will leave all its individual subsystems in distinct microstates, however this fails dramatically in quantum mechanics due to the existence of quantum…
A single mechanism, endemic to the standard model of physics, is proposed to explain wavefunction collapse, classical motion, dissipation, equilibration, and the transition from pure quantum mechanics through open system decoherence to the…
We develop a general theory describing the thermodynamical behavior of open quantum systems coupled to thermal baths beyond perturbation theory. Our approach is based on the exact time-local quantum master equation for the reduced open…
The hydrodynamic formulation of quantum mechanics is used to elucidate the mechanism for decoherence, the suppression of interference effects in a system evolving from an initial coherent superposition. Analysis of time-dependent trajectory…
Entanglement within a given device provides a potential resource for quantum information processing. Entanglement between system and environment leads to decoherence (thus suppressing non-classical features within the system) but also opens…
Decoherence is strongly influenced by environmental criticality, with conventional Hermitian critical points typically enhancing the loss of quantum coherence. Here, we show that this paradigm is fundamentally altered in non-Hermitian…
In this paper, decoherence is studied for quantum systems undergoing adiabatic processes, which are coupled to huge quantum environments. It is shown that decoherence can happen with respect to a preferred basis given by transient…
Quantum decoherence is of primary importance for relaxation to an equilibrium distribution and, accordingly, for equilibrium processes. We demonstrate how coherence breaking implies evolution to a microcanonical distribution…
We propose a method to evaluate general thermodynamic fluctuations in open quantum systems, based on performing a two-point measurement scheme on the system using dynamics-dependent thermodynamic observables. Our approach allows one to…
The evaluation of the specific heat of an open, damped quantum system is a subtle issue. One possible route is based on the thermodynamic partition function which is the ratio of the partition functions of system plus bath and of the bath…
We present a rigorous analysis of the phenomenon of decoherence for general $N-$level systems coupled to reservoirs. The latter are described by free massless bosonic fields. We apply our general results to the specific cases of the qubit…
In classical thermodynamic processes the unavoidable presence of irreversibility, quantified by the entropy production, carries two energetic footprints: the reduction of extractable work from the optimal, reversible case, and the…
The prototypical Schr\"{o}dinger cat state, i.e., an initial state corresponding to two widely separated Gaussian wave packets, is considered. The decoherence time is calculated solely within the framework of elementary quantum mechanics…
Experiments with trapped atomic gases have opened novel possibilities for studying the evolution of nonequilibrium finite quantum systems, which revived the necessity of reconsidering and developing the theory of such processes. This review…
We theoretically investigate the pure dephasing dynamics of two static impurity qubits embedded within a common environment of ultracold fermionic atoms, which are confined to one spatial dimension. Our goal is to understand how…
Heat transport in open quantum systems is particularly susceptible to the modeling of system-reservoir interactions. It thus requires to consistently treat the coupling between a quantum system and its environment. While perturbative…
The conventional conception of decoherence relies on the interaction with an external set of degrees of freedom - the 'bath' - to which the system loses quantum information. But the role of the bath can be played too by any internal degrees…
In this lectures, we have described some essential features of loss of coherence by a qubit coupled to the environment. We have first presented well known semiclassical arguments that relate both decoherence and relaxation to the…