Decoherence of a quantum harmonic oscillator system

Abstract

In this paper, we extend the internal degree of freedom model to give us decoherence in the level of the system. It is found that decoherence function of the system is a product of two functions that independently depend on the probe wave function and the pointer wave function. We then provide an example of the system decoherence by using a quantum harmonic oscillator as a system and preparing the probe and pointer as ground state quantum harmonic oscillators. It is found that the rate of decoherence is inversely proportional to the differences of the eigenvalues of the system.