Decoherence in an interacting quantum field theory: The vacuum case

Journal Article · Mon Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.065030· OSTI ID:21409436

Koksma, Jurjen F; Prokopec, Tomislav; Schmidt, Michael G ^[1]

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1. Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP) and Spinoza Institute, Utrecht University, Postbus 80195, 3508 TD Utrecht (Netherlands)

We apply the decoherence formalism to an interacting scalar field theory. In the spirit of the decoherence literature, we consider a 'system field' and an 'environment field' that interact via a cubic coupling. We solve for the propagator of the system field, where we include the self-energy corrections due to the interaction with the environment field. In this paper, we consider an environment in the vacuum state (T=0). We show that neglecting inaccessible non-Gaussian correlators increases the entropy of the system as perceived by the observer. Moreover, we consider the effect of a changing mass of the system field in the adiabatic regime, and we find that at late times no additional entropy has been generated.

• OSTI ID: 21409436
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 81; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CORRECTIONS
COUPLING
ENERGY
ENTROPY
FIELD THEORIES
INTERACTIONS
MASS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PROPAGATOR
QUANTUM DECOHERENCE
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SCALAR FIELDS
SELF-ENERGY
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
VACUUM STATES