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arXiv:quant-ph/0311115 · Journal of the Physical Society of Japan

Decoherence from Internal Dynamics in Macroscopic Matter-Wave Interferometry

Sang Wook Kim, Hwa-Kyun Park

Published May 15, 2005• 0 citations
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Abstract

Usually, decoherence is generated from the coupling with an outer environment. However, a macroscopic object generically possesses its own environment in itself, namely the complicated dynamics of internal degrees of freedom. We address a question: when and how the internal dynamics decohere interference of the center of mass motion of a macroscopic object. We will also show that weak localization of a macroscopic object in disordered potentials can be destroyed by such decoherence.

DOI
10.1143/jpsj.74.1445

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Usually, decoherence is generated from the coupling with an outer environment. However, a macroscopic object generically possesses its own environment in itself, namely the complicated dynamics of internal degrees of freedom. We address a question: when and how the internal dynamics decohere interference of the center of mass motion of a macroscopic object. We will also show that weak localization of a macroscopic object in disordered potentials can be destroyed by such decoherence.
We revisit the quantum decoherence problem of the center of mass motion of a macroscopic object, which is modelled as a one-dimensional atom chain. Induced by the coupling of the center of mass (C.M) motion with the inner degrees of freedom, this inner-environment-induced decoherence is reflected by the localization of the C.M wave packet. We show that, the C.M motion is coupled to the inner states only when the chain has interaction with the external potential. This result provides a realistic mechanism for the analysis of the inner-environment-induced localization of a macroscopic object.
In this work, we analyze the effect of an object's internal degrees of freedom on its center of mass dynamics in order to determine its relevance to decoherence processes in double slit experiments.We show that these degrees of freedom couple to the center of mass in the presence of a potential that breaks the translational invariance of the system, and in so doing, act as an environment that evolves together with the object's center of mass.Using a scattering approach, we compute the density operator of the system composed of its center of mass and relative coordinates, in the Born approximation, for elastic scattering.We argue how this density operator gives us information about inelastic processes and conclude that, within the Born approximation, geometric constraints prevent the internal degrees of freedom from acting as a relevant factor for decoherence.vi
We study how the decoherence of macroscopic objects originates intrinsically from the relativistic effect. With the degree of freedom of the center of mass (CM) characterizing the collective quantum state of a macroscopic object (MO), it is found that an MO consisting of N particles can decohere with a time scale of no more than N − 1 . Here, the special relativity can induce the coupling of the collective motion mode and the relative motion modes in an order of 1/ c 2 , which intrinsically results in the above minimum decoherence.
We consider a composite system consisting of coupled particles, and investigate decoherence due to coupling of the center-of-mass degree of freedom to the internal vibrational degrees of freedom. For a composite system of bound particles, we show that in general such a decoherence effect exists, and leads to suppression of interference between different paths of the center-of-mass. For the special case of harmonically-bound particles moving in an external potential, we show that the coupling between the center-of-mass and internal degrees of freedom takes the form of parametric driving of the vibrational degrees of freedom, and that nontrivial coupling depends on the second derivative of the external potential. We find a solution to this parametric driving problem in one dimension for a fixed center-of-mass trajectory. We also propose a measure of compositeness, which quantifies the extent to which such a composite system cannot be approximated as a single, indivisible particle. We perform numerical simulations for a simple interference experiment, consisting of two wave packets scattering off of a square well, and show a close connection between suppression of interference and entanglement between the center-of-mass and internal degrees of freedom, which depends on the initial state of the internal mode. We also calculate the measure of compositeness for this system.
Decoherence is the main process behind the quantum to classical transition. It is a purely quantum mechanical effect by which the system loses its ability to exhibit coherent behavior. The recent experimental observation of diffraction and interference patterns for large molecules raises some interesting questions. In this context, we identify possible agents of decoherence to take into account when modeling these experiments, and study their visible (or not) effects on the interference pattern. We thereby present an analysis of matter wave interferometry in the presence of a dynamic quantum environment, and study how much the visibility fringe is reduced and in which timescale the decoherence effects destroy the interference of massive objects. Finally, we apply our results to the experimental data reported on fullerenes and cold neutrons.
Decoherence is the main process behind the quantum to classical transition. It is a purely quantum mechanical effect by which the system loses its ability to exhibit coherent behavior. The recent experimental observation of diffraction and interference patterns for large molecules raises some interesting questions. In this context, we identify possible agents of decoherence to take into account when modeling these experiments, and study their visible (or not) effects on the interference pattern. We thereby present an analysis of matter wave interferometry in the presence of a dynamic quantum environment, and study how much the visibility fringe is reduced and in which timescale the decoherence effects destroy the interference of massive objects. Finally, we apply our results to the experimental data reported on fullerenes and cold neutrons. © World Scientific Publishing Company.