arXiv · quant-ph/0208141
Decoherence of molecular wave packets in an anharmonic potential
Abstract
The time evolution of anharmonic molecular wave packets is investigated under the influence of the environment consisting of harmonic oscillators. These oscillators represent photon or phonon modes and assumed to be in thermal equilibrium. Our model explicitly incorporates the fact that in the case of a nonequidistant spectrum the rates of the environment induced transitions are different for each transition. The nonunitary time evolution is visualized by the aid of the Wigner function related to the vibrational state of the molecule. The time scale of decoherence is much shorter than that of dissipation, and gives rise to states which are mixtures of localized states along the phase space orbit of the corresponding classical particle. This behavior is to a large extent independent of the coupling strength, the temperature of the environment and also of the initial state.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Peter Foldi, Mihaly G. Benedict, Attila Czirjak, Balazs Molnar. 2002-08-22. Decoherence of molecular wave packets in an anharmonic potential. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.67.032104
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.