Neutral kaons in random media

The generalized dynamics describing the propagation of neutral kaons in randomly fluctuating media is derived and analyzed. It takes into account possible matter-induced effects leading to loss of phase coherence and dissipation. The study of selected neutral kaon observables indicates that these non-standard effects are amenable to a direct experimental analysis.Comment: 21 pages, plain-TeX, corrected typ

Damped harmonic oscillators in the holomorphic representation

Quantum dynamical semigroups are applied to the study of the time evolution of harmonic oscillators, both bosonic and fermionic. Explicit expressions for the density matrices describing the states of these systems are derived using the holomorphic representation. Bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom are then put together to form a supersymmetric oscillator; the conditions that assure supersymmetry invariance of the corresponding dynamical equations are explicitly derived.Comment: 19 pages, plain-TeX, no figure

Dissipative effects in semileptonic B decays

We study the time evolution and decay of the neutral B-meson system using quantum dynamical semigroups. New, nonstandard terms appear in the expression of relevant observables; they can be parametrized in terms of six phenomenological constants. Although very small, these parameters may be detected in the new generation of dedicated B-meson experiments.Comment: 14 pages, plain-Te

Complete positivity and correlated neutral kaons

In relation with experiments on correlated kaons at phi-factories, it is shown that the request of complete positivity is necessary in any physically consistent description of neutral kaons as open quantum systems.Comment: LaTeX, 9 page

Open Quantum Dynamics: Complete Positivity and Entanglement

We review the standard treatment of open quantum systems in relation to quantum entanglement, analyzing, in particular, the behaviour of bipartite systems immersed in a same environment. We first focus upon the notion of complete positivity, a physically motivated algebraic constraint on the quantum dynamics, in relation to quantum entanglement, i.e. the existence of statistical correlations which can not be accounted for by classical probability. We then study the entanglement power of heat baths versus their decohering properties, a topic of increasing importance in the framework of the fast developing fields of quantum information, communication and computation. The presentation is self contained and, through several examples, it offers a detailed survey of the physics and of the most relevant and used techniques relative to both quantum open system dynamics and quantum entanglement.Comment: LaTex, 77 page

Tests of Complete Positivity in Fiber Optics

We consider the propagation of polarized photons in optical fibers under the action of randomly generated noise. In such situation, the change in time of the photon polarization can be described by a quantum dynamical semigroup. We show that the hierarchy among the decay constants of the polarization density matrix elements as prescribed by complete positivity can be experimentally probed using standard laboratory set-ups.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe

Complete positivity and neutron interferometry

We analyze the dynamics of neutron beams in interferometry experiments using quantum dynamical semigroups. We show that these experiments could provide stringent limits on the non-standard, dissipative terms appearing in the extended evolution equations.Comment: 12 pages, plain Te