English

Exact positivity of the Wigner and P-functions of a Markovian open system

Quantum Physics 2016-09-08 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We discuss the case of a Markovian master equation for an open system, as it is frequently found from environmental decoherence. We prove two theorems for the evolution of the quantum state. The first one states that for a generic initial state the corresponding Wigner function becomes strictly positive after a finite time has elapsed. The second one states that also the P-function becomes exactly positive after a decoherence time of the same order. Therefore the density matrix becomes exactly decomposable into a mixture of Gaussian pointer states.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0111139,
  title  = {Exact positivity of the Wigner and P-functions of a Markovian open system},
  author = {Lajos Diosi and Claus Kiefer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0111139},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

11 pages, references added, typo corrected, to appear in J. Phys. A