Exact decoherence to pointer states in free open quantum systems is universal

Abstract

In this paper it is shown that exact decoherence to minimal uncertainty Gaussian pointer states is generic for free quantum particles coupled to a heat bath. More specifically, the paper is concerned with damped free particles linearly coupled under product initial conditions to a heat bath at arbitrary temperature, with arbitrary coupling strength and spectral densities covering the Ohmic, subohmic, and supraohmic regime. Then it is true that there exists a time t_c such that for times t>t_c the state can always be exactly represented as a mixture (convex combination) of particular minimal uncertainty Gaussian states, regardless of and independent from the initial state. This exact `localisation' is hence not a feature specific to high temperatures and weak damping limit, but is rather a generic property of damped free particles.

4 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (3)

• Collisional decoherence observed in matter wave interferometry
• Exact solution of the Hu-Paz-Zhang master equation
• Role of many-body entanglement in decoherence processes

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Decoherence, the measurement problem, and interpretations of quantum mechanics
• Quantum Decoherence
• Pointer states for primordial fluctuations in inflationary cosmology
• Open quantum system dynamics and the mean force Gibbs state
• Inflationary spectra and violations of Bell inequalities
• Macroscopic superpositions require tremendous measurement devices
• Entanglement-induced Decoherence and Energy Eigenstates
• Preferred States of Decoherence under Intermediate System-Environment Coupling
• Pointer basis induced by collisional decoherence
• Pointer States via Engineered Dissipation
• Steady state thermodynamics of two qubits strongly coupled to bosonic environments
• Unraveling Quantum Brownian Motion: Pointer States and their Classical Trajectories
• Nontrivial quantum effects in biology: A skeptical physicists' view
• Emergence of pointer states in a non-perturbative environment
• Decoherence, Time Scales and Pointer States
• Loss of coherence and dressing in QED
• Quantum Uncertainties in the Schmidt Basis Given by Decoherence
• Classical correspondence beyond the Ehrenfest time for open quantum systems with general Lindbladians
• Quantum Brownian motion as an iterated entanglement-breaking measurement by the environment
• Pointer States in the Born-Markov approximation