A particle across a medium: how decoherence relates to the index of refraction (Q996343)

The author derives a master equation in Lindblad form for the description of the dynamics of a massive particle crossing a dilute medium, typically a gas (for relevant recent results on this subject see \textit{L. Diósi} [Europhys.~Lett. 30, 63--68 (1995)], \textit{B. Vacchini} [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1374--1377 (2000; Zbl 1042.82590); Phys. Rev. E 63, 066115 (2001)] and \textit{K. Hornberger} [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 060601 (2006)]). The result is obtained dividing the medium into slices and describing the effect of the interaction with the single slice by an S-matrix formalism. The motivation for this treatment comes from similar approaches in the evaluation of the refractive index for electromagnetic radiation or neutrons crossing a medium. Particular attention is devoted to distinguish in the Lindblad structure the contributions that describe a coherent wavelike dynamics, equivalently formulated by a complex index of refraction, with respect to those responsible for incoherent effects. This analysis is also used to estimate decoherence effects in interferometric experiments with massive test particles interacting through collisions with a background gas.