The problem of objectivity, i.e. how to explain on quantum grounds the objective character of the macroscopic world, is one of the aspects of the celebrated quantum-to-classical transition. Initiated by W. H. Zurek and collaborators, this problem gained some attention recently with several approaches being developed. The aim of this work is to compare three of them: quantum Darwinism, Spectrum Broadcast Structures, and strong quantum Darwinism. The paper is concentrated on foundations, providing a synthetic analysis of how the three approaches realize the idea of objectivity and how they are related to each other. As a byproduct of this analysis, a proof of a generalized Spectrum Broadcast Structure theorem is presented. Recent quantum Darwinism experiments are also briefly discussed.
Quantum Darwinism is a compelling theory that describes the quantum-to classical transition as the emergence of objectivity of quantum systems. Spectrum broadcast structure and strong quantum Darwinism are two extensions of this theory with emphasis on state structure and information respectively. The complete experimental verification of these three frameworks, however, requires quantum state tomography over both the system and accessible environments, thus limiting the feasibility and scalability of experimental tests. Here, we introduce a subspace-dependent objectivity operation and constru…
Quantum Darwinism and spectrum broadcast structure describe the emergence of objectivity in quantum systems. However, it is unclear whether these two frameworks lead to consistent predictions on the objectivity of the state of a quantum system in a given scenario. In this paper, we jointly investigate quantum Darwinism and spectrum broadcasting, as well as the subdivision of quantum Darwinism into accessible information and quantum discord, in a two-level system interacting with an $N$-level environment via a random matrix coupling. We propose a novel partial trace method to suitably and consi…
Quantum-to-classical transition is a fundamental open question in physics frontier. Quantum decoherence theory points out that the inevitable interaction with environment is a sink carrying away quantum coherence, which is responsible for the suppression of quantum superposition in open quantum system. Recently, quantum Darwinism theory further extends the role of environment, serving as communication channel, to explain the classical objectivity emerging in quantum measurement process. Here, we used a six-photon quantum simulator to investigate classical and quantum information proliferation …
We investigate the implications of quantum Darwinism in a composite quantum system with interacting constituents exhibiting a decoherence-free subspace. We consider a two-qubit system coupled to an $N$-qubit environment via a dephasing interaction. For excitation preserving interactions between the system qubits, an analytical expression for the dynamics is obtained. It demonstrates that part of the system Hilbert space redundantly proliferates its information to the environment, while the remaining subspace is decoupled and preserves clear non-classical signatures. For measurements performed …
Quantum Darwinism describes objectivity of quantum systems via their correlations with their environment--information that hypothetical observers can recover by measuring the environments. However, observations are done with respect to a frame of reference. Here, we take the formalism of [Giacomini, Castro-Ruiz, & Brukner. Nat Commun 10, 494 (2019)], and consider the repercussions on objectivity when changing quantum reference frames. We find that objectivity depends on non-degenerative relative separations, conditional state localisation, and environment macro-fractions. There is different ob…
Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful theories, correctly predicting huge class of physical phenomena. Ironically, in spite of all its successes, there is a notorious problem: how does Nature create a ''bridge'' from fragile quanta to the robust, objective world of everyday experience? It is now commonly accepted that the most promising approach is the Decoherence Theory, based on the system-environment paradigm. To explain the observed redundancy and objectivity of information in the classical realm, Zurek proposed to divide the environment into independent fractions and argued that…
Quantum Darwinism proposes that the proliferation of redundant information plays a major role in the emergence of objectivity out of the quantum world. Is this kind of objectivity necessarily classical? We show that if one takes Spekkens' notion of noncontextuality as the notion of classicality and the approach of Brandão, Piani and Horodecki to quantum Darwinism, the answer to the above question is `yes', if the environment encodes sufficiently well the proliferated information. Moreover, we propose a threshold on this encoding, above which one can unambiguously say that classical objectivity…
How the objective everyday world emerges from the underlying quantum behaviour of its microscopic constituents is an open question at the heart of the foundations of quantum mechanics. Quantum Darwinism and spectrum broadcast structure are two different frameworks providing key insight into this question. Recent works, however, indicate these two frameworks can lead to conflicting predictions on the objectivity of the state of a system interacting with an environment. Here we provide a resolution to this issue by defining strong quantum Darwinism and proving that it is equivalent to spectrum b…
In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 010403 (2019)], an equivalence is proposed between the so-called Spectrum Broadcast Structure for a system-multienvironment quantum state, and the conjunction of two information-theory notions: (a) Strong Quantum Darwinism; and (b) Strong Independence. Here, we show that the mathematical formulation of condition (b) by the authors (namely, the pairwise independence of the fragments of the environment, conditioned on the system), is necessary but not sufficient to ensure the equivalence. We propose a simple counter-example, together with a strengthened …
In a recent comment [Feller et. al, arXiv:2101.09186] on our Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 010403 (2019)], Feller et. al identified a mistake in our mathematical expression of "strong independence" for states that satisfy Spectrum Broadcast Structure. We concede that we wrote a mathematical condition that is necessary but not sufficient. However, we used the original and correct qualitative definition for "strong independence" throughout the paper and in our proofs, therefore the proofs and statements, aside from the aforementioned mathematical expression, remain correct.
Metrological approach to the emergence of classical objectivity
University College Dublin（都柏林大学学院）；University College Cork（科克大学学院）；Università degli Studi di Palermo（巴勒莫大学）；Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）；University of Maryland, Baltimore County（马里兰大学巴尔的摩分校）；National Quantum Laboratory（国家量子实验室）；University of Rochester（罗切斯特大学）
We examine the emergence of objectivity via quantum Darwinism through the use of a collision model, i.e. where the dynamics is modeled through sequences of unitary interactions between the system and the individual constituents of the environment, termed "ancillas". By exploiting versatility of this framework, we show that one can transition from a "Darwinistic" to an "encoding" environment by simply tuning their interaction. Furthermore we establish that in order for a setting to exhibit quantum Darwinism we require a mutual decoherence to occur between the system and environmental ancillas, …
From compatibility of measurements to exploring Quantum Darwinism on NISQ
University of Massachusetts, Boston（马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校）；University of Maryland, Baltimore County（马里兰大学巴尔的摩县分校）；Quantum Science Institute, University of Maryland, Baltimore County（马里兰大学巴尔的摩县分校量子科学研究所）；National Quantum Laboratory（国家量子实验室）
Recently, the emergence of classical objectivity as a property of a quantum state has been explicitly derived for a small object embedded in a photonic environment in terms of a spectrum broadcast form---a specific classically correlated state, redundantly encoding information about the preferred states of the object in the environment. However, the environment was in a pure state and the fundamental problem was how generic and robust is the conclusion. Here we prove that despite of the initial environmental noise the emergence of the broadcast structure still holds, leading to the perceived o…
Quantum darwinism (QD) is the process responsible for the proliferation of redundant information in the environment of a quantum system that is being decohered. This enables independent observers to access separate environmental fragments and reach consensus about the system's state. In this work, we study the effect of disorder in the emergence of QD and find that a highly disordered environment is greatly beneficial for it. By introducing the notion of lack of redundancy to quantify objectivity, we show that it behaves analogously to the entanglement entropy (EE) of the environmental eigenst…
It is well-known that decoherence is a crucial barrier in realizing various quantum information processing tasks; on the other hand, it plays a pivotal role in explaining how a quantum system's fragile state leads to the robust classical state. Zurek [Nat. Phys. 5, 181-188 (2009)] has developed the theory which successfully describes the emergence of classical objectivity of quantum system via decoherence, introduced by the environment. Here, we consider two systems for a model universe, in which the first system shows a random quantum state, and the other represents the environment. We take 2…
A state selected at random from the Hilbert space of a many-body system is overwhelmingly likely to exhibit highly non-classical correlations. For these typical states, half of the environment must be measured by an observer to determine the state of a given subsystem. The objectivity of classical reality-the fact that multiple observers can agree on the state of a subsystem after measuring just a small fraction of its environment-implies that the correlations found in nature between macroscopic systems and their environments are very exceptional. Building on previous studies of quantum Darwin…
We lay a comprehensive foundation for the study of redundant information storage in decoherence processes. Redundancy has been proposed as a prerequisite for objectivity, the defining property of classical objects. We consider two ensembles of states for a model universe consisting of one system and many environments: the first consisting of arbitrary states, and the second consisting of ``singly-branching'' states consistent with a simple decoherence model. Typical states from the random ensemble do not store information about the system redundantly, but information stored in branching states…
We examine the emergence and suppression of signatures of quantum Darwinism when the system of interest interacts with a complex, structured environment. We introduce an extended spin-star model where the system is coupled to $N$ independent spin-chains. Each site of the chain then lives in a definite layer of the environment, and hence we term this the "onion" model. We fix the system-environment interaction such that classical objectivity is guaranteed if the environment consists of a single layer. Considering a fully factorized initial state for all constituent sub-systems, we then examine …
The objective, classical world emerges from the underlying quantum substrate via the proliferation of redundant copies of selected information into the environment, which acts as a communication channel, transmitting that information to observers. These copies are independently accessible, allowing many observers to reach consensus about the state of a quantum system via its imprints in the environment. Quantum Darwinism recognizes that the redundancy of information is thus central to the emergence of objective reality in the quantum world. However, in addition to the "quantum system of intere…
We critically examine the role that correlations established between a system and fragments of its environment play in characterising the ensuing dynamics. We employ a class of dephasing models where the state of the initial environment represents a tunable degree of freedom that qualitatively and quantitatively affects the correlation profiles, but nevertheless results in the same reduced dynamics for the system. We apply recently developed tools for the characterisation of non-Markovianity to carefully assess the role that correlations, as quantified by the (quantum) Jensen-Shannon divergenc…
Quantum Darwinism posits that information becomes objective whenever multiple observers indirectly probe a quantum system by each measuring a fraction of the environment. It was recently shown that objectivity of observables emerges generically from the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics, whenever the system of interest has finite dimensions and the number of environment fragments is large [F. G. S. L. Brandão, M. Piani, and P. Horodecki, Nature Commun. 6, 7908 (2015)]. Despite the importance of this result, it necessarily excludes many practical systems of interest that are infinite-…
Classical objectivity as a property of quantum states---a view proposed to explain the observer-independent character of our world from quantum theory, is an important step in bridging the quantum-classical gap. It was recently derived in terms of spectrum broadcast structures for small objects embedded in noisy photon-like environments. However, two fundamental problems have arisen: a description of objective motion and applicability to other types of environments. Here we derive an example of objective states of motion in quantum mechanics by showing a formation of dynamical spectrum broadca…
We study the role of the information deposited in the environment of an open quantum system in course of the decoherence process. Redundant spreading of information -- the fact that some observables of the system can be independently ``read-off'' from many distinct fragments of the environment -- is investigated as the key to effective objectivity, the essential ingredient of ``classical reality''. This focus on the environment as a communication channel through which observers learn about physical systems underscores importance of quantum Darwinism -- selective proliferation of information ab…
Quantum Darwinism offers an explanation for the emergence of classical objective features -- those we are used to at macroscopic scales -- from quantum properties at the microscopic level. The interaction of a quantum system with its surroundings redundantly proliferates information to many parts of the environment, turning it accessible and objective to different observers. But given that one cannot probe the quantum system directly, only its environment, how to witness whether an unknown quantum property can be deemed objective or not? Here we propose a probabilistic framework to analyze thi…
Quantum systems interacting with environments tend to have their information lost from transmission through the correlations generated with the degrees of freedom of the environment. For situations where we have non- Markovian environments, the information contained in the environment may return to the system and such effect can be captured by non-Markovian witnesses. In the present work, we use a central qubit coupled to a spin chain with Ising interactions subject to a magnetic field, i.e., a central spin model, and solve the exact dynamics of a system subject to dephasing dynamics via Kraus…
Decoherent histories with(out) objectivity in a (broken) apparatus
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；Laboratoire de Physique de l’École normale supérieure, ENS, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité（巴黎高等师范学院物理实验室，ENS，巴黎文理研究大学，法国国家科学研究中心，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence（佛罗伦萨大学物理与天文学系）
Objectivity constitutes one of the main features of the macroscopic classical world. An important aspect of the quantum-to-classical transition issue is to explain how such a property arises from the microscopic quantum world. Recently, within the framework of open quantum systems, there has been proposed such a mechanism in terms of the, so-called, Spectrum Broadcast Structures. These are multipartite quantum states of the system of interest and a part of its environment, assumed to be under an observation. This approach requires a departure from the standard open quantum systems methods, as …
In spite of all of its successes, quantum mechanics leaves us with a central problem: How does Nature create a "foot-bridge" from fragile quanta to the objective world of everyday experience? Here we identify within quantum mechanics a fundamental process leading to the perceived objectivity and called state information broadcasting. This is the trick that Nature uses instead of a simple cloning. We uncover it basing on minimal assumptions, without referring to any dynamical details or a concrete model. More specifically, we show how a crucial for quantum mechanics notion of non-disturbance du…
Quantum-to-classical transition still eludes a full understanding. Out of its multiple aspects, one has recently gained an increased attention - the appearance of objective world out of the quantum. One particularly idea is that objectivity appears thanks to specific quantum state structures formation during the evolution, known as Spectrum Broadcast Structures (SBS). Despite that quite some research was already performed on this strongest and most fundamental form of objectivity, its practical realization in a concrete physical medium has not been analyzed so far. In this work, we study the p…
Spectrum Broadcast Structures are a new and fresh concept in the quantum-to-classical transition, introduced recently in the context of decoherence and the appearance of objective features in quantum mechanics. These are specific quantum state structures, responsible for an apparent objectivity of a decohered state of a system. Recently they have been shown to appear in the well known Quantum Brownian Motion model, however the final analysis relied on numerics. Here, after a presentation of the main concepts, we perform analytical studies of the model, showing the timescales and the efficiency…
The theory of Quantum Darwinism aims to explain how our objective classical reality arises from the quantum world, by analysing the distribution of information about a quantum system that is accessible to multiple observers, who probe the system by intercepting fragments of its environment. Previous work showed that, when the number of environmental fragments grows, the quantum channels modelling the information flow from system to observers become arbitrarily close - in terms of diamond norm distance - to "measure-and-prepare" channels, ensuring objectivity of observables; the convergence is …
Birth of objective properties from subjective quantum world has been one of the key questions in the quantum-to-classical transition. Basing on recent results in the field, we study it in a quantum mechanical model of a boson-boson interaction-quantum Brownian motion. Using various simplifications we prove a formation for thermal environments of, so called, spectrum broadcast structures, responsible for perceived objectivity. In the quantum measurement limit we prove that this structure is always formed, providing the characteristic timescales. Including self-Hamiltonians of the environment, w…
A crucial question is how objective and classical behavior arises from a fundamental physical theory. Here we provide a natural definition of a decoherence process valid in all causal theories, and show how its behavior can be extremely different from the quantum one. Remarkably, despite this, we prove that the so-called spectrum broadcast structure characterizes all objective states in every fundamental causal theory, exactly as in quantum mechanics. Our results show a stark contrast between the extraordinarily diverse decoherence behavior and the universal features of objectivity.
