Decoherence Mechanisms

Decoherence Mechanisms are the environmental coupling processes by which a computational substrate system loses its quantum coherence. The book lists them with coherence preservation and interference patterns as what its quantum formalism of the substrate (tensor product wave functions, interference overlap conditions and temporal coherence factors) is meant to analyze. It ties them to matter-wave interferometry with large molecules such as C₆₀ fullerene (mass 720 amu, de Broglie wavelength about 2.5 pm): the substrate correlation length scales with particle mass as ξ▱ ≈ lₚ (m/mₚ)^(1/3), and interference visibility is predicted to fall as V☫ = V_0 exp(−m/m≋), with the Substrate Coherence Mass Scale m≋ equal to 10⁶ amu. The current definition gives the decoherence rate as Γ≋⦰ = γ◌ (T◌/T▱)² (ρ◌/ρ▱), quadratic in the ratio of environmental to substrate temperature and linear in the ratio of environmental to substrate density. It connects to the Coherence Factor, Decoherence Transition, Visibility Prediction, Substrate Coherence Mass Scale and Phase Coherence.