English

Decoherence, Chaos, and the Correspondence Principle

Quantum Physics 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

We present evidence that decoherence can produce a smooth quantum-to-classical transition in nonlinear dynamical systems. High-resolution tracking of quantum and classical evolutions reveals differences in expectation values of corresponding observables. Solutions of master equations demonstrate that decoherence destroys quantum interference in Wigner distributions and washes out fine structure in classical distributions bringing the two closer together. Correspondence between quantum and classical expectation values is also re-established.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/9803042,
  title  = {Decoherence, Chaos, and the Correspondence Principle},
  author = {Salman Habib and Kosuke Shizume and Wojciech Hubert Zurek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/9803042},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages, 2 figures (color figures embedded at low resolution), uses RevTeX plus macro (included). Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press)

R2 v1 2026-07-22T20:03:29.217Z