decoherence

plural decoherences

1. countableuncountablequantum mechanicsLoss of quantum coherence (phase relation between the quantum states of particles) in a physical system as it interacts with its environment.

   One way of preventing both decoherences is to set up the system in a "non-decoherent quantum state."

   2015, Fernanda Samaniega, “Manipulating Spins: Causality and Decoherence”, in Uskali Mäki, Ioannis Votsis, Stéphanie Ruphy, Gerhard Schurz, editors, Recent Developments in the Philosophy of Science: EPSA13 Helsinki, Springer,, page 191

   3 more examples

   There is a sense in which simple interference effects are destroyed when a system's environment becomes correlated with its state. This phenomenon is called decoherence. I shall consider three approaches here. According to one, decoherence alone explains why we get determinate records. According to another, decoherence helps one to formulate a satisfactory interpretation of Everett by selecting a globally preferred basis that makes the right physical facts determinate in each Everett branch. According to a third, decoherence sects a locally preferred basis for each observer that makes the right physical facts determinate from the perspective of that particular observer.

   1999, Jeffrey A. Barrett, The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds, Oxford University Press, page 221

   We have already alluded to decoherence in connection with the emergence of classical space-time, the ‘collapse′ of the wave function (Case 3) and the notion of entanglement. Physicists have hailed the discovery of decoherence as ‘the most important advance in the foundation of quantum theory since Bell's inequalities.’¹³¹ This praise is based on good reasons: (a) decoherence offers new ways of understanding quantum mechanics for it embodies a critique of entrenched terminology (‘collapse’ of the wave function, complementarity); (b) it is testable since it appeals to physical processes; (c) it offers an insight into a much more fundamental level of quantum indeterminacy.

   2004, Friedel Weinert, The Scientist as Philosopher: Philosophical Consequences of Great Scientific Discoveries, Springer, page 272

   A detailed investigation of decoherence during gating due to a bosonic environment was performed in the original work of Loss and DiVincenzo. Since then, there have been many studies of leakage and decoherence in the context of the quantum-dot quantum computing proposal.

   2008, D. Klauser, W. A. Coish, Daniel Loss, “Quantum-Dot Spin Qubit and Hyperfine Interaction”, in Rolf Haug, editor, Advances in Solid State Physics, 46, Springer, page 20

   Synonyms: decoherency, quantum decoherence

2. countabledateduncountableengineeringThe normal condition of sensitiveness in a coherer; reversion to such condition.