Work

Electronic decoherence along a single nuclear trajectory

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We describe an approach to subsystem decoherence without the usual tracing out of the environment. The subsystem of focus is described entirely by a pure state evolving nonunitarily along a single classical trajectory of its environment. The approach is deduced from the exact factorization framework for arbitrary systems of electrons and nuclei. The nonunitarity of the electronic dynamics arises exclusively from nonadiabatic correlations between electrons and nuclei. We demonstrate that the approach correctly describes the coherence gain and the subsequent decoherence for the example of a nuclear trajectory passing through an avoided crossing, the prototypical case where single-trajectory Ehrenfest dynamics fails to produce decoherence.

Source: Physical Review Research

DOI: 10.1103/nnkr-phm5

Authors: Matisse Wei-Yuan Tu, E. K. U. Gross

Institutions: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter

Language: English

Topic: Quantum Mechanics and Applications

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,625

Funders: European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme