Definition of "decoupling"

decoupling

verb
1. present participle and gerund of decouple
noun
plural decouplings
1. The act or process by which something is decoupled, as:
  1. The unhitching of railcars.
  2. The disentangling of economic interdependencies.
2. (cosmology) The emission of photons during Recombination.
  Quotations
  Directly combining in a low energy state (ground state) is less efficient, so these hydrogen atoms generally form with the electrons still in a high-energy state, and once combined, the electrons quickly release energy in the form of one or more photons as they transition to a low energy state. This release of photons is known as photon decoupling.
  2023 July 13, Wikipedia contributors, “Chronology of the universe”, in English Wikipedia‎, Wikimedia Foundation