The theory of decoherence attempts to explain the emergent classical behaviour of a quantum system interacting with its quantum environment. In order to formalize this mechanism we introduce the idea that the information preserved in an open quantum evolution (or channel) can be characterized in terms of observables of the initial system. We use this approach to show that information which is broadcast into many parts of the environment can be encoded in a single observable. This supports a model of decoherence where the pointer observable can be an arbitrary positive operator-valued measure (POVM). This generalization makes it possible to characterize the emergence of a realistic classical phase-space. In addition, this model clarifies the relationships among the information preserved in the system, the information flowing from the system to the environment (measurement), and the establishment of correlations between the system and the environment.
Certain issues regarding the time-scales over which environment-induced decoherence occurs, and the nature of emergent pointer states, are discussed. A model system, namely, a Stern-Gerlach setup coupled to a quantum mechanical "heat-bath" is studied. The emergent pointer states for this system are obtained, which are different from those discussed in the literature. It is pointed out that this difference is due to some confusion regarding the decoherence time-scale, which is clarified here.
Two initially correlated coherent states, each interacting with its own independent dissipative environment exhibit a sudden transition from classical to quantum decoherence. This change in the dynamics is a turning point in the decoherence, in the sense that depending on the average number of photons of each cavity, decoherence can even be suppressed. Indeed, the quantum state is time-independent for a time span in the mesoscopic regime, revealing a decoherence-free subspace. Furthermore, the absence of decoherence is manifested in the apparition of a metastable pointer state basis.
We study the emergence and dynamics of pointer states in the motion of a quantum test particle affected by collisional decoherence. These environmentally distinguished states are shown to be exponentially localized solitonic wave functions which evolve according to the classical equations of motion. We explain their formation using the orthogonal unraveling of the master equation, and we demonstrate that the statistical weights of the arising mixture are given by projections of the initial state onto the pointer basis.
It is well-known that the pointer basis of a quantum system satisfies the condition to diagonalize the interaction Hamiltonian between the subsystems. We show that this condition can be translated into the form $δΛ=0,$ where $Λ$, so-called the action, is the time integrated interaction energy: it is found out naturally in the phase of state vectors due to diagonal interaction. The careful treatment of a two states system demonstrates that the states of the total system branch into the states with different values of the action. Mathematically the pointer states are selected out by the saddle p…
The purpose of the present study is to derive the pointer states of a macroscopic system interacting with its environment, under the general assumptions, i.e., without assuming any form of the interaction Hamiltonian. The lowest order perturbation leads that the interaction energy shifts the phase factors of the state vectors. For a macroscopic system, these factors are the macroscopic quantities even for the very weak interaction. When we group the state vector of the total system by the view point of environmental side, the destructive interference occurs and the stationary phase approximati…
We have studied the emergence of classical states in the perturbative interaction model. The states which interact with many other degrees of freedom, such as the center of mass of a macro-object, play important role. Although the random phase mechanism is effective as same as Zurek's strong correlation model, there are enormous states, each of which independently developes due to the orthogonality of the environmental states. In these privileged states, the subsystem picture with the separability is stable.
The purpose of the present paper is to derive the pointer states of a macro-object using a simple perturbation method. We study the model Hamiltonian involving the weak interaction between the center of mass and its environment. The main conclusion is that the pointer states emerge as the small part of the total state vector when the interaction Hamiltonian is not dominant: the degrees of freedom being at the center of interaction can be localized. In the weak interaction case, if the disappearance of the energy contribution from the off-diagonal terms is caused by the decoherence, it threaten…
In a quantum measurement setting, it is known that environment-induced decoherence theory describes the emergence of effectively classical features of the quantum system-measuring apparatus composite system when the apparatus is allowed to interact with the environment. In [E.A. Galapon {\it EPL} {\bf 113} 60007 (2016)], a measurement model is found to have the feature of inducing exact decoherence at a finite time via one internal degree of freedom of the apparatus provided that the apparatus is decomposed into a pointer and an inaccessible probe, with the pointer and the probe being in momen…
We consider a spin-boson Hamiltonian which is generalized such that the Hamiltonians for the system ($\hat{H}_{\cal S}$) and the interaction with the environment ($\hat{H}_{\rm int}$) do not commute with each other. Considering a single-mode quantized field in exact resonance with the tunneling matrix element of the system, we obtain the time-evolution operator for our model. Using our time-evolution operator we calculate the time-dependent pointer states of the system and the environment (which are characterized by their ability not to entangle with each other) for the case that the environme…
We consider the quantized atom-field model and for the regime that $\hat{H}_{\cal E}\ll\hat{H}_{\cal S}\ll\hat{H'}$ (but $\hat{H}_{\cal E}\neq0$ and $\hat{H}_{\cal S}\neq0$); where $\hat{H}_{\cal E}$, $\hat{H}_{\cal S}$ and $\hat{H'}$ respectively represent the self Hamiltonians of the environment and the system, and the interaction between the system and the environment. Considering a single-mode quantized field we obtain the time-evolution operator for the model. Using our time-evolution operator we calculate the time-dependent pointer states of the system and the environment (which are char…
We study the decoherence process of a four spin-1/2 antiferromagnet that is coupled to an environment of spin-1/2 particles. The preferred basis of the antiferromagnet is discussed in two limiting cases and we identify two $\it{exact}$ pointer states. Decoherence near the two limits is examined whereby entropy is used to quantify the $\it{robustness}$ of states against environmental coupling. We find that close to the quantum measurement limit, the self-Hamiltonian of the system of interest can become dynamically relevant on macroscopic timescales. We illustrate this point by explicitly constr…
We use the classical correlation between a quantum system being measured and its measurement apparatus to analyze the amount of information being retrieved in a quantum measurement process. Accounting for decoherence of the apparatus, we show that these correlations may have a sudden transition from a decay regime to a constant level. This transition characterizes a non-asymptotic emergence of the pointer basis, while the system-apparatus can still be quantum correlated. We provide a formalization of the concept of emergence of a pointer basis in an apparatus subject to decoherence. This contr…
We study protective quantum measurements in the presence of an environment and decoherence. We consider the model of a protectively measured qubit that also interacts with a spin environment during the measurement. We investigate how the coupling to the environment affects the two characteristic properties of a protective measurement, namely, (i) the ability to leave the state of the system approximately unchanged and (ii) the transfer of information about expectation values to the apparatus pointer. We find that even when the interaction with the environment is weak enough not to lead to appr…
The dynamics for an open quantum system can be `unravelled' in infinitely many ways, depending on how the environment is monitored, yielding different sorts of conditioned states, evolving stochastically. In the case of ideal monitoring these states are pure, and the set of states for a given monitoring forms a basis (which is overcomplete in general) for the system. It has been argued elsewhere [D. Atkins et al., Europhys. Lett. 69, 163 (2005)] that the `pointer basis' as introduced by Zurek and Paz [Phys. Rev. Lett 70, 1187(1993)], should be identified with the unravelling-induced basis whic…
It is shown that the nature of quantum states that emerge from decoherence is such that one can {\em measure} the expectation value of any observable of the system in a single measurement. This can be done even when such pointer states are a priori unknown. The possibility of measuring the expectation value of any observable, without any prior knowledge of the state, points to the objective existence of such states.
We show that the pointer basis distinguished by collisional decoherence consists of exponentially localized, solitonic wave packets. Based on the orthogonal unraveling of the quantum master equation, we characterize their formation and dynamics, and we demonstrate that the statistical weights arising from an initial superposition state are given by the required projection. Since the spatial width of the pointer states can be obtained by accounting for the gas environment in a microscopically realistic fashion, one may thus calculate the coherence length of a strongly interacting gas.
The time evolution of low energy spin states of a single molecular magnet in a local electric field is investigated. The decoherence of the driven single molecular magnet weakly coupled to a thermal bosonic environment is analyzed by the second-order time-convolutionless non-Markovian master equation. If the characteristic time of the system is much smaller than the correlation time of the environment, the analytical expression of the reduced density matrix of the system is obtained. The non-Markovian dynamics of the spin states at low temperatures is induced by the memory effects in the decay…
In quantum mechanics, pointer states are eigenstates of the observable of the measurement apparatus that represent the possible positions of the display pointer of the equipment. The origin of this concept lies in attempts to fill the blanks in the Everett's relative-state interpretation, and to make it a fully valid description of physical reality. To achieve this, it was necessary to consider not only the main system interacting with the measurement apparatus (like von Neumann and Everett did) but also the role of the environment in eliminating correlations between different possible measure…
Using the Gell-Mann and Hartle formalism of generalized quantum mechanics of closed systems, we study the classical limit of coarse-grained spacetime histories and their decoherence. The system under consideration is one-dimensional and consists of a particle coupled to a von Neumann apparatus that performs a measurement of the position of the particle during the finite time interval during which the histories of this system take place. We consider two cases: a free particle and a harmonic oscillator. The real line is divided into intervals of the same length, and coarse-grained histories are …
Using the Gell-Mann and Hartle formalism of generalized quantum mechanics of closed systems, we study coarse-grained decoherent histories. The system under consideration is one-dimensional and consists of a particle coupled to a von Neumann apparatus that measures its position. The particle moves in a quadratic potential; in particular we consider a driven harmonic oscillator. The real line is divided into intervals of the same length, and coarse-grained histories are defined by the arithmetic average of the initial and final position of the particle to be within one of these intervals. The po…
We propose a general scheme determining the quantum pointer basis of a macroscopic object interacting with environment. Unlike the decoherence program, our pointer basis does not require robustness against entanglement, but require robustness on the object state itself. The proposed pointer basis does not rely on master equations, and so is easily calculable since it has a time-local analytic formula. We show that, as a convincing example, the proposed formula gives an satisfactory pointer basis of a macroscopic flying body such as a bullet whose pointer states should have well-defined momentu…
According to our modal-Hamiltonian interpretation (MHI) of quantum mechanics, the Hamiltonian of the closed system defines the set of its definite-valued observables. This definition seems to be incompatible with the pointer basis selected by the environment-induced decoherence (EID) of the open system. In this paper we argue that decoherence can be understood from a closed system perspective which (i) shows that the incompatibility between MHI and EID is only apparent, and (ii) solves certain conceptual challenges that the EID program still has to face.
A standard theory of thermodynamics states that a quantum system in contact with a thermal environment relaxes to the equilibrium state known as the Gibbs state wherein decoherence occurs in the system's energy eigenbasis. When the interaction between the system and environment is strong, a different equilibrium state can be reached that is not diagonal in the system energy eigenbasis. Zurek's theory of einselection predicts that the decoherence takes place in the so-called pointer basis under the strong coupling regime, which can be viewed as continuous measurement of the system by the enviro…
Pointer states are long-lasting high-fidelity states in open quantum systems. We show how any pure state in a non-Markovian open quantum system can be made to behave as a pointer state by suitably engineering the coupling to the environment via open-loop periodic control. Engineered pointer states are constructed as approximate fixed points of the controlled open-system dynamics, in such a way that they are guaranteed to survive over a long time with a fidelity determined by the relative precision with which the dynamics is engineered. We provide quantitative minimum-fidelity bounds by identif…
The destruction of entanglement of open quantum systems by decoherence is investigated in the asymptotic long-time limit. Starting from a general and analytically solvable decoherence model which does not involve any weak-coupling or Markovian assumption it is shown that two fundamentally different classes of entangled states can be distinguished. Quantum states of the first class are fragile against decoherence so that they can be disentangled asymptotically even if coherences between pointer states are still present. Quantum states of the second type are robust against decoherence. Asymptoti…
We provide analytical expressions for classical and total trace-norm (Schatten 1-norm) geometric correlations in the case of two-qubit X states. As an application, we consider the open-system dynamical behavior of such correlations under phase and generalized amplitude damping evolutions. Then, we show that geometric classical correlations can characterize the emergence of the pointer basis of an apparatus subject to decoherence in either Markovian or non-Markovian regimes. In particular, as a non-Markovian effect, we obtain a time delay for the information to be retrieved from the apparatus b…
There are many formalisms to describe quantum decoherence. However, many of them give a non general and ad hoc definition of "pointer basis" or "moving preferred basis", and this fact is a problem for the decoherence program. In this paper we will consider quantum systems under a general theoretical framework for decoherence and we will present a tentative definition of the moving preferred basis. These ideas are implemented in a well-known open system model. The obtained decoherence and the relaxation times are defined and compared with those of the literature for the Lee- Friedrichs model.
Standard semi-classical models of decoherence do not take explicit account of the classical information required to specify the system - environment boundary. I show that this information can be represented as a finite set of reference eigenvalues that must be encoded by any observer, including any apparatus, able to distinguish the system from its environment. When the information required for system identification is accounted for in this way, decoherence can be described as a sequence of entanglement swaps between reference and pointer components of the system and their respective environme…
We investigate the dynamics of classical and quantum correlations between two qubits. Each qubit is implemented by a pair of phosphorous impurities embedded in a silicon substrate. The main decoherence mechanism affecting these types of qubits is provided by the coupling of the phosphorous impurities to the acoustical vibrations of the silicon lattice. We find that depending on the temperature of the substrate and the initial state, three different dynamics can be found. These are characterized by the number of abrupt changes in both classical and quantum correlations. We also show that the co…
In this work we derive Born's rule from the pilot-wave theory of de Broglie and Bohm. Based on a toy model involving a particle coupled to a environement made of "qubits" (i.e., Bohmian pointers) we show that entanglement together with deterministic chaos lead to a fast relaxation from any statistitical distribution $ρ(x)$ (of finding a particle at point $x$) to the Born probability law $|Ψ(x)|^2$. Our model is discussed in the context of Boltzmann's kinetic theory and we demonstrate a kind of H theorem for the relaxation to the quantum equilibrium regime.
