Stability of states in a squeezed environment

Abstract

Several recent studies on the subject of environment induced decoherence have suggested that the predictability sieve selects coherent states over squeezed states. Most of such studies have considered a system consisting of an oscillator linearly coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators. In this paper, we consider an environment consisting of squeezed oscillators. We derive the master equation for an oscillator coupled to such an environment. We solve this master equation for the case of the oscillator being in a coherent state and for the oscillator in a squeezed state. We then compare the stability of coherent states and squeezed states in the general squeezed environment. Our aim is to find if coherent states are more stable than squeezed states in a squeezed environment as well or is this fact true only in an environment of coherent oscillator states? We argue that unless we show that coherent states are preferred in a nonclassical environment as well, we cannot assume that coherent states form most environments and therefore the study of the stability of states only in an environment of coherent oscillator states is not a general case.