Dephasing by two-level systems at zero temperature by unitary evolution

We analyze the unitary time evolution of a conduction electron, described by a two-level system, interacting with two-level systems (spins) through a spin-spin interaction and prove that coherent spin states of the conduction electron are obtained in the strong coupling regime, when the number of the spins is taken to be, formally, infinitely large (thermodynamic limit). This model describes a spin interacting with a spin bath in a strong coupling regime and gives a dephasing time at zero temperature that agrees with the recent experimental results for quantum dots. Dephasing is proved to occur as the conduction electron oscillates between the two states with frequency going to infinity in the thermodynamic limit, that is, increasing the number of spins. Then, it is shown that the only meaning that can be attached to such oscillations with infinite frequency is by an average in time, eliminating the off-diagonal terms of the density matrix. This model is in agreement with a recent proposal of appearance of classical states in quantum mechanics due to the large number of components of a quantum system, if properly prepared for the states of each component part. The strong coupling study of the model is accomplished through the principle of duality as recently introduced in the perturbation theory (M. Frasca, Phys. Rev. A 58 (1998) 3439. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.