Electron Decoherence at Zero Temperature

Abstract

The problem of low temperature decoherence of an electron inside a disordered conductor [1] is extremely important in many areas of physics. For instance [2], to verify predictions of the quantum theory, measurements have to be made. However, one prevalent interpretation requires the explicit existence of a classical apparatus for measurement. The necessity of classical mechanics to interpret quantum theory of which it should be a limiting case creates the so-called quantum measurement problem in addition to the fact that the measurement process itself is not described by quantum mechanics. The idea of decoherence or loss of quantum coherence — signifying transition from the quantum to the classical realm by the coupling to an environment — within the quantum mechanical framework at zero temperature is thus extremely fundamental. Despite its glaring necessity, most studies of decoherence are done in the high temperature (classical) limit for the environment. Any phenomenology which depicts zero temperature decoherence is thus essential to foundational problems [2] of quantum theory.