Decoherence and the rate of entropy production for chaotic quantum systems

DIANA MONTEOLIVA; JUAN PABLO PAZ

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2000 vol. 85 p. 3373 - 3377

0031-9007

We show that for an open quantum system which is classically chaotic (a quartic double well with harmonic driving coupled to a sea of harmonic oscillators) the rate of entropy production has, as a function of time, two relevant regimes: For short times it is proportional to the diffusion coefficient (fixed by the system-environment coupling strength). For longer times (but before equilibration) there is a regime where the entropy production rate is fixed by the Lyapunov exponent. The nature of the transition time between both regimes is investigated