Work

Emergence of quantum Darwinism and pointer states for noncommuting evolutions

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Quantum systems achieve objectivity by redundantly encoding information about themselves into the surrounding environment, through a mechanism known as quantum Darwinism. When this happens, observers measure the environment and infer the system to be in one of its pointer states. We study the emergence of objectivity whenever the Hamiltonian of the system and the interaction Hamiltonian between system and environment do not commute, a condition where it becomes difficult to identify pointer states, and the use of methods such as the predictability sieve becomes necessary. We show in an explicit qubit model to what degree the noncommuting evolution allows for the emergence of objective states, and show that a definition of pointer states based on spectrum broadcast structure is more natural in this context, and coincides with the one based on the predictability sieve for commuting evolutions.

Source: APS Open Science

DOI: 10.1103/75jr-ltct

Authors: Diana A. Chisholm, G. Massimo Palma, Luca Innocenti

Institutions: University College Dublin, University of Palermo

Language: English

Topic: Quantum Mechanics and Applications

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Research Ireland

Awards: G5200663643, G759150844