2008/07/31 by Stephen L. Adler, Stephen L Adler, Angelo Bassi · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #quant-ph #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1751-8113/41/39/395308
published as J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 (2008) 395308 · Latex, 43 pages; versions 2&3 have minor editorial revisions
arxiv created 2008/08/22 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We continue the analysis of models of spontaneous wave function collapse with stochastic dynamics driven by non-white Gaussian noise. We specialize to a model in which a classical "noise" field, with specified autocorrelator, is coupled to a local nonrelativistic particle density. We derive general results in this model for the rates of density matrix diagonalization and of state vector reduction, and show that (in the absence of decoherence) both processes are governed by essentially the same rate parameters. As an alternative route to our reduction results, we also derive the Fokker-Planck equations that correspond to the initial stochastic Schr"odinger equation. For specific models of the noise autocorrelator, including ones motivated by the structure of thermal Green's functions, we discuss the qualitative and qantitative dependence on model parameters, with particular emphasis on possible cosmological sources of the noise field.