Consistent histories for tunneling molecules subject to collisional decoherence

Abstract

The decoherence of a two-state tunneling molecule, such as a chiral molecule or ammonia, due to collisions with a buffer gas is analyzed in terms of a succession of quantum states of the molecule satisfying the conditions for a consistent family of histories. With $\hslash \omega$ the separation in energy of the levels in the isolated molecule and $\gamma$ a decoherence rate proportional to the rate of collisions, we find for $\gamma \gg \omega$ (strong decoherence) a consistent family in which the molecule flips randomly back and forth between the left- and right-handed chiral states in a stationary Markov process. For $\gamma <\omega$ there is a family in which the molecule oscillates continuously between the different chiral states, but with occasional random changes of phase, at a frequency that goes to zero at a phase transition $\gamma =\omega$. This transition is similar to the behavior of the inversion frequency of ammonia with increasing pressure, but will be difficult to observe in chiral molecules such as D${}_2$S${}_2$. There are additional consistent families both for $\gamma >\omega$ and for $\gamma <\omega$. In addition we relate the speed with which chiral information is transferred to the environment to the rate of decrease of complementary types of information (e.g., parity information) remaining in the molecule itself.

18 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Hund's paradox and the collisional stabilization of chiral molecules
• Revisiting the Fermi Golden Rule: Quantum Dynamical Phase Transition as a Paradigm Shift
• Monitoring approach to open quantum dynamics using scattering theory
• Types of quantum information
• Quantum molecular dynamics study of the pressure dependence of the ammonia inversion transition

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Variational Consistent Histories as a Hybrid Algorithm for Quantum Foundations
• Thermodynamics of Quadrature Trajectories in Open Quantum Systems
• Collisional decoherence of polar molecules
• Spontaneous symmetry breaking and inversion-line spectroscopy in gas mixtures
• Entangling non planar molecules via inversion doublet transition with negligible spontaneous emission
• Static non-linear Schrödinger equations for the achiral-chiral transitions of polar chiral molecules