No Arabic abstract
An alternative approach to decoherence, named non-dynamical decoherence is developed and used to resolve the quantum measurement problem. According to decoherence, the observed system is open to a macroscopic apparatus(together with a possible added environment) in a quantum measurement process. We show that this open system can be well described by an almost quotient Hilbert space formed phenomenally according to some stability conditions. A group of random phase unitary operators is introduced further to obtain an exact quotient space for the observed system. In this quotient space, a density matrix can be constructed to give the Borns probability rule, realizing a (non-dynamical) decoherence. The concept of the (almost) quotient space can also be used to explain the classical properties of a macroscopic system. We show further that the definite outcomes in a quantum measurement are mainly caused by the almost quotient space of the macroscopic apparatus.
We formulate a novel approach to decoherence based on neglecting observationally inaccessible correlators. We apply our formalism to a renormalised interacting quantum field theoretical model. Using out-of-equilibrium field theory techniques we show that the Gaussian von Neumann entropy for a pure quantum state increases to the interacting thermal entropy. This quantifies decoherence and thus measures how classical our pure state has become. The decoherence rate is equal to the single particle decay rate in our model. We also compare our approach to existing approaches to decoherence in a simple quantum mechanical model. We show that the entropy following from the perturbative master equation suffers from physically unacceptable secular growth.
A multi-slit interference experiment, with which-way detectors, in the presence of environment induced decoherence, is theoretically analyzed. The effect of environment is modeled via a coupling to a bath of harmonic oscillators. Through an exact analysis, an expression for $mathcal{C}$, a recently introduced measure of coherence, of the particle at the detecting screen is obtained as a function of the parameters of the environment. It is argued that the effect of decoherence can be quantified using the measured coherence value which lies between zero and one. For the specific case of two slits, it is shown that the decoherence time can be obtained from the measured value of the coherence, $mathcal{C}$, thus providing a novel way to quantify the effect of decoherence via direct measurement of quantum coherence. This would be of significant value in many current studies that seek to exploit quantum superpositions for quantum information applications and scalable quantum computation.
We study a class of quantum measurement models. A microscopic object is entangled with a macroscopic pointer such that a distinct pointer position is tied to each eigenvalue of the measured object observable. Those different pointer positions mutually decohere under the influence of an environment. Overcoming limitations of previous approaches we (i) cope with initial correlations between pointer and environment by considering them initially in a metastable local thermal equilibrium, (ii) allow for object-pointer entanglement and environment-induced decoherence of distinct pointer readouts to proceed simultaneously, such that mixtures of macroscopically distinct object-pointer product states arise without intervening macroscopic superpositions, and (iii) go beyond the Markovian treatment of decoherence.
Non-Gaussian states, and specifically the paradigmatic Schrodinger cat state, are well-known to be very sensitive to losses. When propagating through damping channels, these states quickly loose their non-classical features and the associated negative oscillations of their Wigner function. However, by squeezing the superposition states, the decoherence process can be qualitatively changed and substantially slowed down. Here, as a first example, we experimentally observe the reduced decoherence of squeezed optical coherent-state superpositions through a lossy channel. To quantify the robustness of states, we introduce a combination of a decaying value and a rate-of-decay of the Wigner function negativity. This work, which uses squeezing as an ancillary Gaussian resource, opens new possibilities to protect and manipulate quantum superpositions in phase space.
Taming decoherence is essential in realizing quantum computation and quantum communication. Here we experimentally demonstrate that decoherence due to amplitude damping can be suppressed by exploiting quantum measurement reversal in which a weak measurement and the reversing measurement are introduced before and after the decoherence channel, respectively. We have also investigated the trade-off relation between the degree of decoherence suppression and the channel transmittance.