Nonexponential quantum decay under environmental decoherence

An unstable quantum state generally decays following an exponential law, as environmental decoherence is expected to prevent the decay products from recombining to reconstruct the initial state. Here we show the existence of deviations from exponential decay in open quantum systems under very genera...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Beau, M, Kiukas, J, Egusquiza, I L, A del Campo
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 25.08.2017
Subjects
Brownian motion
Decay
Environmental law
Physics - Quantum Gases
Physics - Quantum Physics
Quantum theory
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Summary:An unstable quantum state generally decays following an exponential law, as environmental decoherence is expected to prevent the decay products from recombining to reconstruct the initial state. Here we show the existence of deviations from exponential decay in open quantum systems under very general conditions. Our results are illustrated with the exact dynamics under quantum Brownian motion and suggest an explanation of recent experimental observations.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1706.06943