Decoherence as a sequence of entanglement swaps

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chris Fields
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2019-03-01
Series:Results in Physics
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211379719301822
Description
Summary: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 environments. Doing so removes the need for the a priori assumptions of ontic boundaries required by semi-classical models. Keywords: Decomposition, Einselection, Measurement, Predictability sieve, Reference observable
ISSN:2211-3797