Decoherence and recoherence in an analogue of the black hole information paradox
J. R. Anglin, Raymond Laflamme, Wojciech Hubert Zurek +1 more
We analyze a system consisting of an oscillator coupled to a field. With the field traced out as an environment, the oscillator loses coherence on a very short decoherence time scale; but, on a much longer relaxation time scale, it evolves predictably into a unique, pure (ground) state. This example of recoherence has interesting implications both for the interpretation of quantum theory and for the loss of information during black hole evaporation---the so-called black hole information paradox. We examine these implications by investigating the intermediate and final states of the quantum field, treated as an open system coupled to an unobserved oscillator.
arXiv:gr-qc/9411073•Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields•Aug 15, 1995•54 citations