Decoherence and thermalization of a pure quantum state in quantum field theory

Details Decoherence and thermalization of a pure quantum state in quantum field theory Decoherence and thermalization of a pure quantum state in quantum field theory

2009-10-14

arxiv.org/abs/0910.2570v2

Phys.Rev.Lett.104:230405,2010

Physics

High Energy Physics

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.230405

We study the real-time evolution of a self-interacting O(N) scalar field initially prepared in a pure quantum state. We present a complete solution of the nonequilibrium quantum dynamics from a 1/N-expansion of the two-particle-irreducible effective action at next-to-leading order, which includes scattering and memory effects. Restricting one's attention (or ability to measure) to a subset of the infinite hierarchy of correlation functions, the system is described by an effective (reduced) density matrix which, unlike the full density matrix, has a nontrivial time evolution. In particular, starting from a pure quantum state, we observe the loss of putity/coherence and, on longer time scales, thermalization of the reduced density matrix. We point out that the physics of decoherence is well described by classical statistical field theory.

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