Decoherence and Measurement in Open Quantum Systems

We review results of a recently developed model of a microscopic quantum system interacting with the macroscopic world components which are modeled by collections of bosonic modes. The interaction is via a general operator $\Lambda$ of the system, coupled to the creation and annihilation operators of the environment modes. We assume that in the process of a nearly instantaneous quantum measurement, the function of the environment involves two distinct parts: the pointer and the bath. Interaction of the system with the bath leads to decoherence such that the system and the pointer both evolve into a statistical mixture state described by the density matrix such that the system is in one of the eigenstates of $\Lambda$ with the correct quantum mechanical probability, whereas the expectation values of pointer operators retain amplified information on that eigenstate. We argue that this process represents the initial step of a quantum measurement. Calculation of the elements of the reduced density matrix of the system and pointer is carried out exactly, and time dependence of decoherence is identified. We discuss general implications of our model of energy-conserving coupling to a heat bath for processes of adiabatic quantum decoherence. We also evaluate changes in the expectation values of certain pointer operators and suggest that these can be interpreted as macroscopic indicators of the measurement outcome.Comment: 12 pages in LaTeX, requires the spie.sty style fil

Chirality waves in two-dimensional magnets

We theoretically show that moderate interaction between electrons confined to move in a plane and localized magnetic moments leads to formation of a noncoplanar magnetic state. The state is similar to the skyrmion crystal recently observed in cubic systems with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction; however, it does not require spin-orbit interaction. The non-coplanar magnetism is accompanied by the ground-state electrical and spin currents, generated via the real-space Berry phase mechanism. We examine the stability of the state with respect to lattice discreteness effects and the magnitude of magnetic exchange interaction. The state can be realized in a number of transition metal and magnetic semiconductor systems

Coherent Interaction of Spins Induced by Thermal Bosonic Environment

We obtain and analyze the indirect exchange interaction between two two-state systems, e.g., spins, in a formulation that also incorporates the quantum noise that they experience, due to a bosonic environment, for instance, phonons. We utilize a perturbative approach to obtain a quantum evolution equation for the two-spin dynamics. A non-perturbative approach is used to study the onset of the induced interaction, which is calculated exactly. We predict that for low enough temperatures the interaction is coherent over time scales sufficient to create entanglement, dominated by the zero-point quantum fluctuations of the environment. We identify the time scales for which the spins develop entanglement for various spatial separations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; typos correcte