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arXiv:2209.00914 · International Journal of Quantum Information

Identical damped harmonic oscillators described by coherent states

S. V. Mousavi

Published Feb 3, 2023• 0 citations

Abstract

Some aspects of quantum damped harmonic oscillator (DHO) obeying a Markovian master equation are considered in the absence of thermal noise. The continuity equation is derived and Bohmian trajectories are constructed. As a solution of the master equation, we take a single coherent state and compute analytically the relative entropy of coherence, [Formula: see text], in the energy, position and momentum bases. Although [Formula: see text] is constant in both the position and the momentum bases, it is a decreasing function of time in the energy basis becoming zero at long times, revealing its role as the preferred basis. Then, quantum coherence is computed for a superposition of two coherent states, a cat state, and also a superposition of two cat states in the energy basis as a function of separation, in the complex plane, between the two superposed states. It is seen that the quantum coherence increases with this separation. Furthermore, quantum coherence of superposition is compared to that of decomposed states in the superposition. Finally, by considering a system of two noninteracting DHOs, the effect of quantum statistics is studied on the coherence of reduced single-particle states, the joint detection probability and the mean square separation of particles. Our computations show that the single-particle coherence for antisymmetric states is always less than that of symmetric ones. Furthermore, boson anti-bunching and fermion bunching is seen in this open system. This behavior of bosons is the matter-wave analogue of photon anti-bunching seen in a modified Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) interferometer.

DOI: 10.1142/s0219749923500119

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We use a Markovian master equation to solve for the dynamics of a free particle damped by the coupling of its coordinate to a bath of harmonic oscillators. In the coordinate basis the reduced density matrix for the free particle tends to be diagonalized. Considering the evolution of an initial superposition of two plane waves, we find that the interference-pattern fringe contrast is decreased by the damping. However, for fixed times and sufficiently large damping, the fringe contrast increases with increasing damping. Considering an initial coordinate-space Gaussian wave function, we find that for sufficiently large damping the coupling to the environment models a quantum measurement of the particle's coordinate.

We solve the master equation for the coordinate-coordinate damped harmonic oscillator for initial superpositions of coherent states. In the zero-temperature case the solution remains a simple superposition of coherent states. While the underdamped oscillator evolves all initial superpositions into mixtures of coherent states the overdamped oscillator does so selectively. For finite temperatures coherent states are no longer preserved, and we find a decrease in the variance of the off-diagonal coordinate-basis density-matrix elements below the coherent-state value. This variance decreases with increasing bath temperature. In the overdamped case there is negligible associated spreading of the diagonal coordinate-basis density-matrix elements. Thus the coordinate basis is an example of Zurek's pointer basis and the coordinate damped oscillator models the coordinate-basis density-matrix diagonalization which occurs in a coordinate measurement.

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