Decoherence due to scattering events and Lévy processes

We point out that a unified theoretical framework for the explanation of quite different decoherence experiments can be outlined, provided the interaction causing decoherence can be described in terms of scattering events corresponding to random momentum transfers between system and environment. This unified description relies on a direct correspondence between the different possible master-equations describing such decoherence dynamics and the classical Lévy-Khintchine formula. The loss of coherence due to interaction with the environment is then described in terms of the characteristic function of the related Lévy process, accounting for a wide range of different possible behaviors.