A decoherence interpretation of quantum work for adiabatic processes

Abstract

In this paper, decoherence is studied for quantum systems undergoing adiabatic processes, which are coupled to huge quantum environments. It is shown that decoherence can happen with respect to a preferred basis given by transient self-Hamiltonian.This result can be used to justify a most-often-used definition of quantum work for a system undergoing an adiabatic process, without resorting to measurement.