Environmental effects on the phase space dynamics and decoherence time scale of a charged particle in a Penning trap
Michael Genkin, Eva Lindroth · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical · 2009
We study the time evolution of a charged particle in a Penning trap in the framework of open quantum systems. The interaction with the environment is taken into account by imposing Lindblad operators which are linear in the canonical variables. For the special case of a proton in an asymmetric Penning trap, we compare the dynamics with earlier results obtained from the unitary time-dependent Schrödinger equation. A possibility of estimating the spatial decoherence time of the system is discussed, and approximate decoherence time scales are given for different ions.