Macroscopic quantum behaviour of periodic quantum systems

TL;DR

This paper presents a straightforward method to analyze macroscopic quantum behavior in high-energy periodic systems, showing convergence to classical physics and suppression of interference effects, with harmonic oscillators as a test case.

Contribution

It introduces a simple procedure for studying macroscopic quantum phenomena in high-energy, low-degree-of-freedom systems, emphasizing one-particle states over condensates.

Findings

Quantum probability distributions approach classical ones at high energies.

Interference effects are significantly suppressed in the macroscopic regime.

Harmonic oscillator results validate the proposed approach.

Abstract

In this paper we introduce a simple procedure for computing the macroscopic quantum behaviour of periodic quantum systems in the high energy regime. The macroscopic quantum coherence is ascribed to a one-particle state, not to a condensate of a many-particle system; and we are referring to a system of high energy but with few degrees of freedom. We show that, in the first order of approximation, the quantum probability distributions converge to its classical counterparts in a clear fashion, and that the interference effects are strongly suppressed. The harmonic oscillator provides a testing ground for these ideas and yields excellent results.