883 research outputs found
Incoherent dynamics in neutron-matter interaction
Coherent and incoherent neutron-matter interaction is studied inside a
recently introduced approach to subdynamics of a macrosystem. The equation
describing the interaction is of the Lindblad type and using the Fermi
pseudopotential we show that the commutator term is an optical potential
leading to well-known relations in neutron optics. The other terms, usually
ignored in optical descriptions and linked to the dynamic structure function of
the medium, give an incoherent contribution to the dynamics, which keeps
diffuse scattering and attenuation of the coherent beam into account, thus
warranting fulfilment of the optical theorem. The relevance of this analysis to
experiments in neutron interferometry is briefly discussed.Comment: 15 pages, revtex, no figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Completely Positive Quantum Dissipation
A completely positive master equation describing quantum dissipation for a
Brownian particle is derived starting from microphysical collisions, exploiting
a recently introduced approach to subdynamics of a macrosystem. The obtained
equation can be cast into Lindblad form with a single generator for each
Cartesian direction. Temperature dependent friction and diffusion coefficients
for both position and momentum are expressed in terms of the collision
cross-section.Comment: 8 pages, revtex, no figure
Dynamical Semigroup Description of Coherent and Incoherent Particle-Matter Interaction
The meaning of statistical experiments with single microsystems in quantum
mechanics is discussed and a general model in the framework of non-relativistic
quantum field theory is proposed, to describe both coherent and incoherent
interaction of a single microsystem with matter. Compactly developing the
calculations with superoperators, it is shown that the introduction of a time
scale, linked to irreversibility of the reduced dynamics, directly leads to a
dynamical semigroup expressed in terms of quantities typical of scattering
theory. Its generator consists of two terms, the first linked to a coherent
wavelike behaviour, the second related to an interaction having a measuring
character, possibly connected to events the microsystem produces propagating
inside matter. In case these events breed a measurement, an explicit
realization of some concepts of modern quantum mechanics ("effects" and
"operations") arises. The relevance of this description to a recent debate
questioning the validity of ordinary quantum mechanics to account for such
experimental situations as, e.g., neutron-interferometry, is briefly discussed.Comment: 22 pages, latex, no figure
Master-equations for the study of decoherence
Different structures of master-equation used for the description of
decoherence of a microsystem interacting through collisions with a surrounding
environment are considered and compared. These results are connected to the
general expression of the generator of a quantum dynamical semigroup in
presence of translation invariance recently found by Holevo.Comment: 10 pages, latex, no figures, to appear in Int. J. Theor. Phy
Test Particle in a Quantum Gas
A master equation with a Lindblad structure is derived, which describes the
interaction of a test particle with a macroscopic system and is expressed in
terms of the operator valued dynamic structure factor of the system. In the
case of a free Fermi or Bose gas the result is evaluated in the Brownian limit,
thus obtaining a single generator master equation for the description of
quantum Brownian motion in which the correction due to quantum statistics is
explicitly calculated. The friction coefficients for Boltzmann and Bose or
Fermi statistics are compared.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, no figure
A classical appraisal of quantum definitions of non-Markovian dynamics
We consider the issue of non-Markovianity of a quantum dynamics starting from
a comparison with the classical definition of Markovian process. We point to
the fact that two sufficient but not necessary signatures of non-Markovianity
of a classical process find their natural quantum counterpart in recently
introduced measures of quantum non-Markovianity. This behavior is analyzed in
detail for quantum dynamics which can be built taking as input a class of
classical processes.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures; to appear in J. Phys. B, Special Issue on "Loss
of coherence and memory effects in quantum dynamics
Testing common classical LTE and NLTE model atmosphere and line-formation codes for quantitative spectroscopy of early-type stars
It is generally accepted that the atmospheres of cool/lukewarm stars of
spectral types A and later are described well by LTE model atmospheres, while
the O-type stars require a detailed treatment of NLTE effects. Here model
atmosphere structures, spectral energy distributions and synthetic spectra
computed with ATLAS9/SYNTHE and TLUSTY/SYNSPEC, and results from a hybrid
method combining LTE atmospheres and NLTE line-formation with DETAIL/SURFACE
are compared. Their ability to reproduce observations for effective
temperatures between 15000 and 35000 K are verified. Strengths and weaknesses
of the different approaches are identified. Recommendations are made as to how
to improve the models in order to derive unbiased stellar parameters and
chemical abundances in future applications, with special emphasis on Gaia
science.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication in Journal of Physics:
Conference Series, GREAT-ESF Workshop: Stellar Atmospheres in the Gaia Er
Spitzer Observations of the North Ecliptic Pole
We present a photometric catalog for Spitzer Space Telescope warm mission
observations of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP; centered at , ). The observations are
conducted with IRAC in 3.6 m and 4.5 m bands over an area of 7.04
deg reaching 1 depths of 1.29 Jy and 0.79 Jy in the 3.6
m and 4.5 m bands respectively. The photometric catalog contains
380,858 sources with 3.6 m and 4.5 m band photometry over the
full-depth NEP mosaic. Point source completeness simulations show that the
catalog is 80% complete down to 19.7 AB. The accompanying catalog can be
utilized in constraining the physical properties of extra-galactic objects,
studying the AGN population, measuring the infrared colors of stellar objects,
and studying the extra-galactic infrared background light.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures and 3 tables. Accepted to the ApJ
Quantum theory: the role of microsystems and macrosystems
We stress the notion of statistical experiment, which is mandatory for
quantum mechanics, and recall Ludwig's foundation of quantum mechanics, which
provides the most general framework to deal with statistical experiments giving
evidence for particles. In this approach particles appear as interaction
carriers between preparation and registration apparatuses. We further briefly
point out the more modern and versatile formalism of quantum theory, stressing
the relevance of probabilistic concepts in its formulation. At last we discuss
the role of macrosystems, focusing on quantum field theory for their
description and introducing for them objective state parameters.Comment: 12 pages. For special issue of J.Phys.A, "The Quantum Universe", on
the occasion of 70th birthday of Professor Giancarlo Ghirard
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