Decoherence at zero temperature

Most discussions of decoherence in the literature consider the high-temperature regime but it is also known that, in the presence of dissipation, decoherence can occur even at zero temperature. Whereas most previous investigations all assumed initial decoupling of the quantum system and bath, we consider that the system and environment are entangled at all times. Here, we discuss decoherence for a free particle in an initial Schr\"{o}dinger cat state. Memory effects are incorporated by use of the single relaxation time model (since the oft-used Ohmic model does not give physically correct results)

Note on the derivative of the hyperbolic cotangent

In a letter to Nature (Ford G W and O'Connell R F 1996 Nature 380 113) we presented a formula for the derivative of the hyperbolic cotangent that differs from the standard one in the literature by an additional term proportional to the Dirac delta function. Since our letter was necessarily brief, shortly after its appearance we prepared a more extensive unpublished note giving a detailed explanation of our argument. Since this note has been referenced in a recent article (Estrada R and Fulling S A 2002 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 35 3079) we think it appropriate that it now appear in print. We have made no alteration to the original note

Disentanglement and Decoherence without dissipation at non-zero temperatures

Decoherence is well understood, in contrast to disentanglement. According to common lore, irreversible coupling to a dissipative environment is the mechanism for loss of entanglement. Here, we show that, on the contrary, disentanglement can in fact occur at large enough temperatures $T$ even for vanishingly small dissipation (as we have shown previously for decoherence). However, whereas the effect of $T$ on decoherence increases exponentially with time, the effect of $T$ on disentanglement is constant for all times, reflecting a fundamental difference between the two phenomena. Also, the possibility of disentanglement at a particular $T$ increases with decreasing initial entanglement.Comment: 3 page

Does the Third Law of Thermodynamics hold in the Quantum Regime?

The first in a long series of papers by John T. Lewis, G. W. Ford and the present author, considered the problem of the most general coupling of a quantum particle to a linear passive heat bath, in the course of which they derived an exact formula for the free energy of an oscillator coupled to a heat bath in thermal equilibrium at temperature T. This formula, and its later extension to three dimensions to incorporate a magnetic field, has proved to be invaluable in analyzing problems in quantum thermodynamics. Here, we address the question raised in our title viz. Nernst's third law of thermodynamics

Lorentz Transformation of Blackbody Radiation

We present a simple calculation of the Lorentz transformation of the spectral distribution of blackbody radiation at temperature T. Here we emphasize that T is the temperature in the blackbody rest frame and does not change. We thus avoid the confused and confusing question of how temperature transforms. We show by explicit calculation that at zero temperature the spectral distribution is invariant. At finite temperature we find the well known result familiar in discussions of the the 2.7! K cosmic radiation.Comment: 6 page

A pair of oscillators interacting with a common heat bath

Here the problem considered is that of a pair of oscillators coupled to a common heat bath. Many, if not most, discussions of a single operator coupled to a bath have used the independent oscillator model of the bath. However, that model has no notion of separation, so the question of phenomena when the oscillators are near one another compared with when they are widely separated cannot be addressed. Here the Lamb model of an oscillator attached to a stretched string is generalized to illustrate some of these questions. The coupled Langevin equations for a pair of oscillators attached to the string at different points are derived and their limits for large and small separations obtained. Finally, as an illustration of a different phenomenon, the fluctuation force between a pair of masses attached to the string is calculated, with closed form expressions for the force at small and large separations

Wave Packet Spreading: Temperature and Squeezing Effects with Applications to Quantum Measurement and Decoherence

A localized free particle is represented by a wave packet and its motion is discussed in most quantum mechanics textbooks. Implicit in these discussions is the assumption of zero temperature. We discuss how the effects of finite temperature and squeezing can be incorporated in an elementary manner. The results show how the introduction of simple tools and ideas can bring the reader into contact with topics at the frontiers of research in quantum mechanics. We discuss the standard quantum limit, which is of interest in the measurement of small forces, and decoherence of a mixed (``Schrodinger cat'') state, which has implications for current research in quantum computation, entanglement, and the quantum-classical interface

Quantum thermodynamic functions for an oscillator coupled to a heat bath

Small systems (of interest in the areas of nanophysics, quantum information, etc.) are particularly vulnerable to environmental effects. Thus, we determine various thermodynamic functions for an oscillator in an arbitrary heat bath at arbitrary temperatures. Explicit results are presented for the most commonly discussed heat bath models: Ohmic, single relaxation time and blackbody radiation.Comment: Phys. Rev. B, in pres

Wigner Distribution Analysis of a Schrodinger Cat Superposition of Displaced Equilibrium Coherent States

Motivated by recent experiments, we consider a Schr\"{o}dinger cat superposition of two widely separated coherent states in thermal equilibrium. The time development of our system is obtained using Wigner distribution functions. In contrast to our discussion for a two-Gaussian wave packet [Phys. Lett. A 286 (2001) 87], we find that, in the absence of dissipation, the interference term does not decay rapidly in time, but in common with the other two terms, it oscillates in time and persists for all timesComment: Proc. of Wigner Centennial Conferenc