Onset of classical behaviour after a phase transition

We analyze the onset of classical behaviour in a scalar field after a continuous phase transition, in which the system-field, the long wavelength order parameter of the model, interacts with an environment of its own shortwavelength modes. We compute the decoherence time for the system-field modes from the master equation and compare it with the other time scales of the model. Within our approximations the decoherence time is in general the smallest dynamical time scale. Demanding diagonalisation of the decoherence functional produces identical results. The inclusion of other environmental fields makes diagonalisation occur even earlier.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rivers,R. J., Lombardo,F. C.
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Física 2005
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-97332005000300006
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!