American Journal of Physics

A demonstration of decoherence for beginners

L. Lerner

Published Oct 17, 2017• 4 citations

Abstract

We present a simplified analysis suitable for a beginners' course in quantum mechanics of a recently presented model of positional decoherence in a gas of scatterers. As such, no reference is made to the density matrix formalism, many body theory, or even operator algebra. We only make use of the properties of quantum states and the position and momentum wavefunctions, which students typically encounter in a first quantum mechanics course.

DOI: 10.1119/1.5005526

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