Emergence of pointer states in a non-perturbative environment

Abstract

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.

8 pages, 1 figure; corresponds to published version

References in corpus (12)

• Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical
• Collisional decoherence observed in matter wave interferometry
• Collisional decoherence reexamined
• Continuous Quantum Measurement and the Emergence of Classical Chaos
• Master equation for a quantum particle in a gas
• Stochastic pure state representation for open quantum systems
• Robustness and diffusion of pointer states
• Monitoring derivation of the quantum linear Boltzmann equation
• Theory of decoherence due to scattering events and Lévy processes
• Exact decoherence to pointer states in free open quantum systems is universal
• High-Contrast Interference in a Thermal Cloud of Atoms
• Generalized Phase Space Representation of Operators

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Quantum Decoherence
• Pointer basis induced by collisional decoherence
• Stochastic extensions of the regularized Schrödinger-Newton equation
• Unraveling Quantum Brownian Motion: Pointer States and their Classical Trajectories
• Optimally Convergent Quantum Jump Expansion
• Decoherence: From Interpretation to Experiment
• Quantum Brownian motion as an iterated entanglement-breaking measurement by the environment
• Unravelling Cosmological Perturbations
• Notes on oldest jump unravelling of spatial decoherence master equation