Holographic influence functional and its application to decoherence induced by quantum critical theories

Abstract: The dynamics of a particle influenced by strongly-coupled quantum critical theories is studied by the holographic approach. A real-time prescription for the AdS/CFT correspondence in the context of nonequilibrium physics is proposed from mainly the field theoretic consideration, and the associated holographic influence functional is obtained. We then study the decoherence dynamics of a particle induced by the quantum critical theories with a dynamical exponent $z$. We find that as $z$ increases, the decoherence effect becomes less significant. The similar behavior is found as we heat up the environment. However, in this case the decoherence effect is enhanced not only by its strong coupling constant but also from the finite temperature effect. Finally a comparison is made with the result of a particle influenced by the free field.