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Coherence and Decoherence

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Dissipative Phenomena in Condensed Matter

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Materials Science ((SSMATERIALS,volume 71))

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Abstract

Decoherence can be introduced in the evolution of a quantum system by the environment. This is an important issue in the topical areas of mesoscopic phenomena [509], quantum measurement problems [510–512], wave-packet dynamics in atomic physics [513], electron transfer in chemical and biological reactions [514,515], and quantum information processes [516]. In this chapter, we will discuss decoherence in the context of the problems of condensed matter physics which were discussed in Chaps. 8 and 9. At the outset, it is necessary to clarify the meaning of the terms coherence and decoherence. Following Imry [517], we consider a beam of particles with momentum k i , incident from the left on two rigid, elastic, point scatterers located at x 1 and x 2 (see Fig. 10.1). The beam is scattered with a wave-vector k f , resulting in a momentum transfer k = k f − k i . Assuming that the two amplitudes of scattering are the same, the scattered intensity can be written as

$$S(k) = |A(k)\;({e^{ik\cdot {x_1}}}{\text{ }} + {\text{ }}{e^{ik\cdot {x_2}}}){|^2}$$
(10.1)

.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Sector-III, Block-JD, 700 098, Salt Lake Kolkata, India

    Professor Sushanta Dattagupta

  2. School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 110067, New Delhi, India

    Professor Sanjay Puri

Authors
  1. Professor Sushanta Dattagupta
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  2. Professor Sanjay Puri
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Dattagupta, S., Puri, S. (2004). Coherence and Decoherence. In: Dissipative Phenomena in Condensed Matter. Springer Series in Materials Science, vol 71. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06758-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06758-1_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-05799-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-06758-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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