2026-06-27T11:09:01Zhttps://docta.ucm.es/rest/oai/request

oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/84452023-08-25T18:17:03Zcom_20.500.14352_14col_20.500.14352_15

Thermalization Induced by Quantum Scattering Jacob, Samuel L. Esposito, Massimiliano Rodríguez Parrondo, Juan Manuel Barra, Felipe We use quantum scattering theory to study a fixed quantum system Y subject to collisions with massive particles X described by wave packets. We derive the scattering map for system Y and show that the induced evolution crucially depends on the width of the incident wave packets compared to the level spacing in Y. If Y is nondegenerate, sequential collisions with narrow wave packets cause Y to decohere. Moreover, an ensemble of narrow packets produced by thermal effusion causes Y to thermalize. On the other hand, broad wave packets can act as a source of coherences for Y, even in the case of an ensemble of incident wave packets given by the effusion distribution, preventing thermalization. We illustrate our findings on several simple examples and discuss the consequences of our results in realistic experimental situations. 2023-06-17T09:14:04Z 2023-06-17T09:14:04Z 2023-06-17T09:14:04Z 2021-04-30 journal article https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8445 2691-3399 10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.020312 eng EUROfusion (681456) FIS-2017-83706-R FNR PRIDE/15/10935404 1191441 NSF PHY-1748958 FQXi-IAF19-01 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España Amer Physical Soc