Quantum origin of quantum jumps: Breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer and the transition from quantum to classical

Abstract

Measurements transfer information about a system to the apparatus, and then further on -- to observers and (often inadvertently) to the environment. I show that even imperfect copying essential in such situations restricts possible unperturbed outcomes to an orthogonal subset of all possible states of the system, thus breaking the unitary symmetry of its Hilbert space implied by the quantum superposition principle. Preferred outcome states emerge as a result. They provide framework for the ``wavepacket collapse'', designating terminal points of quantum jumps, and defining the measured observable by specifying its eigenstates. In quantum Darwinism, they are the progenitors of multiple copies spread throughout the environment -- the fittest quantum states that not only survive decoherence, but subvert it into carrying information about them -- into becoming a witness.

arXiv commentFor comments see Seth Lloyd, NATURE 450, 1167 (2007)

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• Quantum Theory of the Classical: Einselection, Envariance, Quantum Darwinism and Extantons
• Quantum Theory of the Classical: Quantum Jumps, Born's Rule, and Objective Classical Reality via Quantum Darwinism
• Eavesdropping on the Decohering Environment: Quantum Darwinism, Amplification, and the Origin of Objective Classical Reality
• Wave-packet collapse and the core quantum postulates: Discreteness of quantum jumps from unitarity, repeatability, and actionable information
• The Cellular Automaton Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
• Amplification, Decoherence, and the Acquisition of Information by Spin Environments
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• Eliminating Ensembles from Equilibrium Statistical Physics: Maxwell's Demon, Szilard's Engine, and Thermodynamics via Entanglement
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• Redundantly amplified information suppresses quantum correlations in many-body systems
• Universal state orthogonalizer and qubit generator
• Quantum Reversibility Is Relative, Or Do Quantum Measurements Reset Initial Conditions?
• Repeatability of measurements: Equivalence of hermitian and non-hermitian observables
• How a wave function can collapse without violating Schroedinger's equation, and how to understand Born's rule
• Decoherence and wave function collapse
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• Emergence of the Classical from within the Quantum Universe
• Objectivity in quantum measurement
• Neutrino oscillations with disentanglement of a neutrino from its partners
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• Consistent histories of systems and measurements in spacetime
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• Growth of Knowledge and Entropy in Quantum Physics
• Environment-Assisted Shortcuts to Adiabaticity
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