Monitoring the Decoherence of Mesoscopic Quantum Superpositions in a Cavity

Abstract

AbstractDecoherence is an extremely fast and efficient environment-induced process transforming macroscopic quantum superpositions into statistical mixtures. It is an essential step in quantum measurement and a formidable obstacle for a practical use of quantum superpositions (quantum computing for instance). For large objects, decoherence is so fast that its dynamics is unobservable. Mesoscopic fields stored in a high-quality superconducting millimeter-wave cavity, a modern equivalent to Einstein’s ‘photon box’, are ideal tools to reveal the dynamics of the decoherence process. Their interaction with a single circular Rydberg atom prepares them in a quantum superposition of fields, containing a few photons, with different classical phases. The evolution of this ‘Schrödinger cat’ state can be later probed with a ‘quantum mouse’, another atom, assessing its coherence. We describe here the experiments performed along these lines at ENS, and stress the deep links between decoherence and complementarity.KeywordsCoherent StateMaster EquationDensity OperatorCavity ModeWigner FunctionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.