@article{2754, abstract = {We study the dynamics of an electron weakly coupled to a phonon gas. The initial state of the electron is the superposition of two spatially localized distant bumps moving towards each other, and the phonons are in a thermal state. We investigate the dynamics of the system in the kinetic regime and show that the time evolution makes the non-diagonal terms of the density matrix of the electron decay, destroying the interference between the two bumps. We show that such a damping effect is exponential in time, and the related decay rate is proportional to the total scattering cross section of the electron-phonon interaction.}, author = {Adami, Riccardo and László Erdös}, journal = {Journal of Statistical Physics}, number = {2}, pages = {301 -- 328}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Rate of decoherence for an electron weakly coupled to a phonon gas}}, doi = {10.1007/s10955-008-9561-8}, volume = {132}, year = {2008}, }