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Summary: Quantum coherent dissipation: A glimpse of the "cat"
D. Segale, M. Karavitis, E. Fredj, and V. A. Apkariana
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, California 92697
Received 7 January 2005; accepted 8 February 2005; published online 24 March 2005
Quantum coherent vibrational relaxation of an impurity strongly coupled to its solid host is
demonstrated through four-wave mixing measurements to infer sustained coherence in the bath,
which is recognized as a superposition of macroscopically distinct states. © 2005 American Institute
of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.1883634
Decoherence, to which is ascribed the transition from the
quantum dynamics that governs microscopic states to the
classicality of the macroscopic world, is a subject of contem-
porary interest.1
Its inevitability is manifest in the absence of
quantum interference between macroscopically distinct states
QIMDS ,2
more affectionately noted by the absence of
Schrödinger's cats in common experience. Yet, "cat"-like
states can be expected to prevail at least transiently in the
limit of strong coupling, when the communication between a
system and its environment is faster than the characteristic
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