Preservation of quantum coherence under Lorentz boost for narrow uncertainty wave packets

Abstract

We consider the effect of relativistic boosts on single particle Gaussian wave packets. The coherence of the wave function as measured by the boosted observer is studied as a function of the momentum and the boost parameter. Using various formulations of coherence it is shown that in general the coherence decays with the increase of the momentum of the state, as well as the boost applied to it. Employing a basis-independent formulation, we show however, that coherence may be preserved even for large boosts applied on narrow uncertainty wave packets. Our result is exemplified quantitatively for practically realizable neutron wave functions.

Decoherence: a numerical study

“…There have been other studies of decoherence in relativistic QFT and quantum mechanics, e.g. [23][24][25][26]. To our knowledge, none have investigated the question of how fast decoherence spreads in the relativistic system after an interaction with the measuring device and environment.…”