Pure Phase Decoherence in a Ring Geometry

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a particle's phase coherence is affected by environmental interactions and magnetic flux in a ring, providing analytical insights into the dynamics of decoherence, current, and density matrix evolution.

Contribution

It offers the first analytical analysis of pure phase decoherence in a ring geometry coupled to a spin bath and magnetic flux.

Findings

Analytic expressions for the influence functional and reduced density matrix.

Results on the time evolution of current in the system.

Insights into decoherence effects on wave-packet dynamics.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of pure phase decoherence for a particle hopping around an N-site ring, coupled both to a spin bath and to an Aharonov-Bohm flux which threads the ring. Analytic results are found for the dynamics of the influence functional and of the reduced density matrix of the particle, both for initial single wave-packet states, and for states split initially into 2 separate wave-packets moving at different velocities. We also give results for the dynamics of the current as a function of time.