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arXiv:cond-mat/9902349

Quantum decoherence phenomena in thermal assisted tunneling

Victor V. Makhro

Published Feb 26, 1999• 0 citations
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Abstract

We propose a novel approach to the problem of a transition from quantum to classical behavior in mesoscopic spin systems. This paper is intended to demonstrate that main cause of such transitions is quantum decoherence which appear as a result of a thermal interaction between spin system and its environment.
DOI
10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9902349

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Two initially correlated coherent states, each interacting with its own independent dissipative environment, exhibit a sudden transition from classical to quantum decoherence. This change in the dynamics is a turning point in the decoherence in the sense that depending on the average number of photons of each harmonic oscillator, decoherence can even be suppressed. Indeed, the quantum state is time independent for a time span in the mesoscopic regime, revealing a decoherence-free subspace. Furthermore, the absence of decoherence is manifested in the apparition of a metastable pointer-state basis.
The emergence of classical behavior and the origin of thermal equilibrium are two central problems in the foundations of physics. In the standard accounts, both phenomena are typically explained through interactions with an external environment: decoherence suppresses quantum interference, while coupling to a thermal bath drives relaxation toward equilibrium. Over the last decades, however, it has become clear that equilibration and thermalization can arise even in fully isolated quantum systems, in the operational sense that the expectation values of relevant observables remain close to equilibrium values for most of the time. Here, we ask whether the same intrinsic equilibration mechanism can also account for the emergence of classical behavior. Using rigorous bounds on equilibration in closed systems, we derive sufficient conditions under which a time-evolved pure state becomes, for most times, operationally indistinguishable from a classical mixture associated with a chosen physical property. We identify two complementary routes to such operational classicality: either the chosen property almost commutes with the system Hamiltonian or the observables used to probe the system lose access to the remaining coherence after equilibration. Our results show that classical behavior need not be confined to the energy basis and may emerge even when substantial coherence remains present in the equilibrium state. This establishes a direct connection between two foundational questions: the origin of thermalization in isolated quantum systems and the quantum-to-classical transition
The quantum-to-classical transition is due to environment-induced decoherence, and it depicts how classical dynamics emerges from quantum systems. Previously, the quantum-to-classical transition has mainly been described with memory-less (Markovian) quantum processes. Here we study the complexity of the quantum-to-classical transition through general non-Markovian memory processes. That is, the influence of various reservoirs results in a given initial quantum state evolving into one of the following four scenarios: thermal state, thermal-like state, quantum steady state, or oscillating quantum nonstationary state. In the latter two scenarios, the system maintains partial or full quantum coherence due to the strong non-Markovian memory effect, so that in these cases, the quantum-to-classical transition never occurs. This unexpected new feature provides a new avenue for the development of future quantum technologies because the remaining quantum oscillations in steady states are decoherence-free.