Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Apr 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..apr.x4003h&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, April Meeting, Jointly Sponsored with the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American As
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
A partially polarized gas of spin 1/2 particles is located in a magnetic field having a spatial gradient to its strength. At t=0 the magnetization is tipped to an angle with respect to the field, and the diminution of the transverse component is followed in time. The classical description consists of adding a diffusion term to the expression for the time rate of change of the magnetization. We examine this as a quantum mechanics decoherence problem with the 'system' being a single particle and the 'environment' being all the other particles and the magnetic field. There are three contributions to the time derivative of the 1-body density matrix, arising from kinetic energy, magnetic energy, and the 2-body potential energy, with the last involving the 2-body density matrix and a trace over the coordinates of the second particle. There are several important parameters in the problem, including the strength and duration of the gradient, and the relative sizes of the wavelength, force range, and the mean spacing between particles. If certain inequalities among these parameters are satisfied, then the decoherence rate is in agreement with the classical result.
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