https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170041
Localization of a macroscopic object induced by the factorization of internal adiabatic motion
1
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100080, P.R. China
2
Department of Mathematics, Peking
University, Beijing 100871, P.R. China
Corresponding author: a suncp@itp.ac.cn
Received:
24
October
2000
Revised:
8
March
2001
Published online: 15 October 2001
To account for the phenomenon of quantum decoherence of a macroscopic
object, such as the localization and disappearance of interference, we
invoke the adiabatic quantum entanglement between its collective states (such
as that of the center-of-mass (CM)) and its inner states based on our
recent investigation. Under the adiabatic limit where motion of the CM does not
excite the transition of inner states, it is shown that the wave function of
the macroscopic object can be written as an entangled state with correlation
between adiabatic inner states and quasi-classical motion configurations of
the CM. Since the adiabatic inner states are factorized with respect to
each component of the macroscopic object, this adiabatic separation can
induce the quantum decoherence. This observation thus provides us with a
possible solution to the Schrdinger cat paradox.
PACS: 05.30.-d – Quantum statistical mechanics / 03.65.-w – Quantum mechanics / 32.80.-t – Photon interactions with atoms / 42.50.-p – Quantum optics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2001