Coherence vs. decoherence in (some) problems of condensed matter physics

Abstract

We present an 'overview' of coherence-to-decoherence transition in certain selected problems of condensed matter physics. Our treatment is based on a subsystem-plus-environment approach. All the examples chosen in this paper have one thing in common - the environmental degrees of freedom are taken to be bosonic and their spectral density of excitations is assumed to be 'ohmic'. The examples are drawn from a variety of phenomena in condensed matter physics involving, for instance, quantum diffusion of hydrogen in metals, Landau diamagnetism and c-axis transport in high T_c superconductors.