Decoherence May Suppress Quantum Tunneling in Cosmological Model

A new simplified cosmological model, highlighted under the heading “Cosmic lockdown: How the environment can isolate quantum fields,” indicates that interactions with the surrounding environment may play a decisive role in the behavior of quantum fields in the early universe. Researchers propose that the process of decoherence, wherein quantum systems lose coherence due to environmental coupling, can have a profound impact on the dynamics of these fields.

The model suggests that decoherence can suppress quantum tunneling, effectively locking fields into the vacuum state they have reached, thereby preventing further transitions. This finding points to a mechanism by which the environment isolates quantum fields, maintaining them in a specific vacuum configuration. Decoherence can suppress quantum tunneling, locking fields into the vacuum state they have reached.