Hannover 2013 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 35: Poster I

Q 35.50: Poster

Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 16:00–18:30, Empore Lichthof

Pointer states of a marker particle in an ideal gas environment — •Lutz Sörgel and Klaus Hornberger — Fakultät für Physik, Universität Duisburg-Essen

We study a quantum test particle interacting with an ideal gas environment via collisions, an important system for understanding the quantum-to-classical transition of particle motion. We consider first the case of collisional decoherence (i.e. the limit of a very massive test particle) and then the general effect of collisions. The latter is described by the quantum linear Boltzmann equation [1], which accounts also for the friction and thermalization experienced by the test particle. An orthogonal unraveling of collisional decoherence shows that the emerging pointer states follow classical trajectories in phase space [2]. Based on that we aim at characterizing the pointer states of the quantum linear Boltzmann equation and finding their equations of motion.

[1] B. Vacchini, K. Hornberger, Phys. Rep. 478 (2009)

[2] M. Busse, K. Hornberger, J. Phys. A 43 (2010)