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Decoherence, tunneling, and noise-induced activation in a double-potential well at high and zero temperature. (English) Zbl 1244.82042

Summary: We study the effects of the environment on tunneling in an open system described by a static double-well potential. We describe the evolution of a quantum state localized in one of the minima of the potential at \(t=0\), in both the limits of high and zero environment temperature. We show that the evolution of the system can be summarized in terms of three main physical phenomena – namely, decoherence, quantum tunneling, and noise-induced activation – and we obtain analytical estimates for the corresponding time scales. These analytical predictions are confirmed by large-scale numerical simulations, providing a detailed picture of the main stages of the evolution and of the relevant dynamical processes

MSC:

82C10 Quantum dynamics and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general)
81P40 Quantum coherence, entanglement, quantum correlations
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