Free electron motion in an electromagnetic field at zero temperature and the dependence on its rest mass

R. F. O’Connell Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4001 (Dated: October 11, 2006) Abstract Efforts to achieve quantum computation, teleportation and communication depend on minimizing decoherence, which is the destruction of a quantum interference pattern. Here, we examine effects arising from the universal zero-point (temperature T = 0) oscillations of the electromagnetic field on a free electron in a Schrödinger cat superposition state. A unique conclusion is that the spreading of an electron wave packet and the rate of decay of decoherence depend on the bare mass m of the electron. However, only for m = 0 does decoherence occur and the fact that it occurs almost instantly is ruled out by electron interference experiments. For m = 0, the electron essentially behaves as a free particle.