2025/02/12 by Matisse Wei-Yuan Tu, E. K. U. Gross, Tu, Matisse Wei-Yuan +1 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #Cold Fusion and Nuclear Reactions #FOS: Physical sciences #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Radioactive Decay and Measurement Techniques
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.08247
openalex publication_date 2025/02/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
We describe a novel approach to subsystem decoherence without the usual tracing-out of the environment. The subsystem of focus is described entirely by a pure state evolving non-unitarily 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 non-unitarity of the electronic dynamics arises exclusively fromnon-adiabatic 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.