Decoherence induced by zero point fluctuations in quantum Brownian motion

Abstract

We show a completely analytical approach to the decoherence induced by a zero temperature environment on a Brownian test particle. We consider an Omhic environment bilinearly coupled to an oscillator and compute the master equation. From diffusive coefficients, we evaluate the decoherence time for the usual quantum Brownian motion and also for an upside-down oscillator, as a toy model of a quantum phase transition.

Comments: 9 pages, RevTex file; 2 figures. Reference added