Schrödinger-Cat States and Decoherence in Quantum-Electromechanical Systems

The University of Queensland, Brisbane.

Friday 13^th October 2006, 3.30PM, Lecture Theatre EN101, FEIS.

Nano-scale quantum-electromechanical systems have not only been used to realize extreme-precision metrology at the quantum limit, but they also exhibit great promise for fundamental explorations of the quantum-classical boundary in much the same way as BECs, SQUIDs, etc., with the key difference being that quantum-electromechanical systems are of truly mechanical nature. After discussing the prospects for creating mechanical Schrödinger-cat states in such systems, I will present my recent work on a theoretical description of dissipation and decoherence in such systems based on an "inverse" spin-boson model.

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