An information theory model for dissipation in open quantum systems

[摘要] This work presents a general model for open quantum systems using an information game along the lines of Jaynes' original work. It is shown how an energy based reweighting of propagators provides a novel moment generating function at each time point in the process. Derivatives of the generating function give moments of the time derivatives of observables. Aside from the mathematically helpful properties, the ansatz reproduces key physics of stochastic quantum processes. At high temperature, the average density matrix follows the Caldeira-Leggett equation. Its associated Langevin equation clearly demonstrates the emergence of dissipation and decoherence time scales, as well as an additional diffusion due to quantum confinement. A consistent interpretation of these results is that decoherence and wavefunction collapse during measurement are directly related to the degree of environmental noise, and thus occur because of subjective uncertainty of an observer.

[发布机构] Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa; FL; 33620, United States^1

[效力级别] 力学 [学科分类] 力学，机械学

[关键词] Decoherence time scale;Environmental noise;Generating functions;High temperature;Langevin equation;Moment generating function;Open quantum systems;Subjective uncertainty