• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.124103
• Corpus ID: 38388894

Quantum reversibility and echoes in interacting systems.

@article{Petitjean2006QuantumRA,
  title={Quantum reversibility and echoes in interacting systems.},
  author={Cyril Petitjean and Philippe Jacquod},
  journal={Physical review letters},
  year={2006},
  volume={97 12},
  pages={
          124103
        }
}

• C. Petitjean, P. Jacquod
• Published 4 April 2006
• Physics
• Physical review letters

In echo experiments, imperfect time-reversal operations are performed on a subset of the total number of degrees of freedom. To capture the physics of these experiments, we introduce a partial fidelity M(B)(t), the Boltzmann echo, where only part of the system's degrees of freedom can be time reversed. We present a semiclassical calculation of M(B)(t). We show that, as the time-reversal operation is performed more and more accurately, the decay rate of M(B)(t) saturates at a value given by the decoherence rate of the controlled degrees of freedom due to their coupling to uncontrolled ones. We connect these results with NMR spin echo experiments.