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AIP conference proceedings

Decoherence in nuclear collisions: Towards a new understanding of near Coulomb barrier nuclear reactions

M. Evers, M. Dasgupta, David J. Hinde, Juan Antonio Caballero, Clara E. Alonso, M. V. Andrés, J. E. García Ramos, Francisco Pérez-Bernal

Published Jan 1, 2010• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

To understand the underlying physical processes that might lead to loss of quantum coherence, high precision quasi‐elastic excitation functions at sub‐barrier energies were measured. Results show transfer events to high excitation energies, which may be impossible to model in a coherent picture. This points to the need to explicitly include quantum decoherence in nuclear reaction models and ultimately to a new understanding of near Coulomb barrier nuclear reactions.

DOI
10.1063/1.3428932

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To understand the underlying physical processes that might lead to loss of quantum coherence, high precision quasi‐elastic excitation functions at sub‐barrier energies were measured. Results show transfer events to high excitation energies, which may be impossible to model in a coherent picture. This points to the need to explicitly include quantum decoherence in nuclear reaction models and ultimately to a new understanding of near Coulomb barrier nuclear reactions.
Atomic nuclei are complex, quantum many-body systems whose structure manifests itself through intrinsic quantum states associated with different excitation modes or degrees of freedom.Collective modes (vibration and/or rotation) dominate at low energy (near the ground-state).The associated states are usually employed, within a truncated model space, as a basis in (coherent) coupled channels approaches to low-energy reaction dynamics.However, excluded non-collective states can be essential, and their effects on the open (nuclear) system dynamics are usually treated through complex potentials.Is this a complete description of open system dynamics?Does it include effects of quantum decoherence?Can decoherence be manifested in reaction observables?This paper discusses these issues and the main ideas of a coupled-channels density-matrix approach that makes it possible to quantify the role and importance of quantum decoherence in low-energy nuclear reaction dynamics.Some topical applications are highlighted.
Atomic nuclei are complex, quantum many‐body systems whose structure manifests itself through intrinsic quantum states associated with different excitation modes or degrees of freedom. Collective modes (vibration and/or rotation) dominate at low energy (near the ground‐state). The associated states are usually employed, within a truncated model space, as a basis in (coherent) coupled channels approaches to low‐energy reaction dynamics. However, excluded states can be essential, and their effects on the open (nuclear) system dynamics are usually treated through complex potentials. Is this a complete description of open system dynamics? Does it include effects of quantum decoherence? Can decoherence be manifested in reaction observables? In this contribution, I discuss these issues and the main ideas of a coupled‐channels density‐matrix approach that makes it possible to quantify the role and importance of quantum decoherence in low‐energy nuclear reaction dynamics. Topical applications, which refer to understanding the astrophysically important collision 12C+12C and achieving a unified quantum dynamical description of relevant reaction processes of weakly‐bound nuclei, are highlighted.
Differential cross sections of nuclear reactions often exhibit characteristic oscillations in the angular distribution originated from an interference of two indistinguishable processes. Here we propose a novel method to visualize origins of such oscillations. This is achieved by taking Fourier transform of scattering amplitudes, following the idea in wave optics. We apply this method to elastic scattering of 16O+16O and 18O+18O at energies above the Coulomb barrier. The former system shows strong oscillations in the angular distribution due to the nearside-farside interferences, while the oscillations are largely suppressed in the latter system due to a stronger absorption. We show that the image of the former and the latter systems corresponds to a double-slit and a single-slit problems in quantum mechanics, respectively.
A variety of physical phenomena have at their foundation the quantum tunneling of particles through potential barriers. Many of these phenomena can be associated with the tunneling of single inert particles. The tunneling of composite systems is more complex than for single particles due to the coupling of the tunneling coordinate with the internal degrees of freedom of the tunneling system. Reported here are the results of a study for the tunneling of a two-component projectile incident on a potential energy system which differs for the two components. A specific linkage is made to sub-Coulomb nuclear reactions.
Quantum decoherence can be viewed as the mechanism responsible for the quantum-to-classical transition as the initially prepared quantum state interacts with its environment in an irreversible manner. One of the most common mechanisms responsible for the macroscopically observed decoherence involves collisions of an atom or molecule, initially prepared in a coherent superposition of states, with gas particles. In this work, a coherent superposition of quantum internal states of NO molecules is prepared by the interaction between the molecule with both a static and a radiofrequency electric field. Subsequently, NO + Ar collision decoherence experiments are investigated by measuring the loss of coherence as a function of the number of collisions. Data analysis using a model based on the interaction potential of the collisional partners allowed to unravel the molecular mechanism responsible for the loss of coherence in the prepared NO quantum superposition of internal states. The relevance of the present work relies on several aspects. On the one hand, the use of radio-waves introduces a new way for the production of coherent beams. On the other hand, the employed methodology could be useful in investigating the Stereodynamics of chemical reactions with coherent reagents.