Extreme Decoherence and Quantum Chaos

Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Jan 11;122(1):014103. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.014103.

Abstract

We study the ultimate limits to the decoherence rate associated with dephasing processes. Fluctuating chaotic quantum systems are shown to exhibit extreme decoherence, with a rate that scales exponentially with the particle number, thus exceeding the polynomial dependence of systems with fluctuating k-body interactions. Our findings suggest the use of quantum chaotic systems as a natural test bed for spontaneous wave function collapse models. We further discuss the implications on the decoherence of AdS/CFT black holes resulting from the unitarity loss associated with energy dephasing.