Temperature of a decoherent oscillator with strong coupling.
The temperature of an oscillator coupled to the vacuum state of a heat bath via Ohmic coupling is non-zero, as measured by the reduced density matrix of the oscillator. This study shows that the actual temperature, as measured by a thermometer, is still zero (or, in the thermal state of the bath, the temperature of the bath). The decoherence temperature is due to 'false-decoherence', with a correlation between the oscillator and the heat bath causing the decoherence, but the heat baths state dragged along with the state of the oscillator.
CIfAR Cosmology and Gravity Program, Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z1, Canada. unruh@physics.ubc.ca
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Unruh