Related papers: Initial states and decoherence of histories
To protect a quantum system from decoherence due to interaction with its environment, we investigate the existence of initial states of the environment allowing for decoherence-free evolution of the system. For models in which a two-state…
We give a short, critical review of the issue of decoherence. We establish the most general framework in which decoherence can be discussed, how it can be quantified and how it can be measured. We focus on environment induced decoherence…
The decoherent (consistent) histories formalism has been proposed as a means of eliminating measurements as a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics. In this formalism, probabilities can be assigned to any description which satisfies a…
When part of the environment responsible for decoherence is used to extract information about the decohering system, the preferred {\it pointer states} remain unchanged. This conclusion -- reached for a specific class of models -- is…
The consistent histories formulation of the quantum theory of a closed system with pure initial state defines an infinite number of incompatible consistent sets, each of which gives a possible description of the physics. We investigate the…
An eigenstate decoherence hypothesis states that each individual eigenstate of a large closed system is locally classical-like. We extend this hypothesis to account for a typically extremely short time scale of decoherence. The extension…
We take up the question why the initial entropy in the universe was small, in the context of evolution of the entropy of a classical system. We note that coarse-graining is a an important aspect of entropy evaluation which can reverse the…
The inherent difficulty in talking about quantum decoherence in the context of quantum cosmology is that decoherence requires subsystems, and cosmology is the study of the whole Universe. Consistent histories gave a possible answer to this…
A wide-ranging theory of decoherence is derived from the quantum theory of irreversible processes, with specific results having for their main limitation the assumption of an exact pointer basis.
The evolution of observable quantities of finite quantum systems is analyzed when the latter are subject to nondestructive measurements. The type and number of measurements characterize the level of decoherence produced in the system. A…
In a recent work (Borras et al., Phys. Rev. A {\bf 79}, 022108 (2009)), we have determined, for various decoherence channels, four-qubit initial states exhibiting the most robust possible entanglement. Here we explore some geometrical…
We present a detailed report on the decoherence of quantum states of continuous variable systems under the action of a quantum optical master equation resulting from the interaction with general Gaussian uncorrelated environments. The rate…
I briefly review the ''decohering histories'' or ''consistent histories'' formulation of quantum theory, due to Griffiths, Omnes, and Gell-Mann and Hartle (and the subject of my graduate work with George Sudarshan). I also sift through the…
The theory of decoherence attempts to explain the emergent classical behaviour of a quantum system interacting with its quantum environment. In order to formalize this mechanism we introduce the idea that the information preserved in an…
A brief introduction to the decoherent histories approach to quantum theory is given, with emphasis on its role in the discussion of the emergence of classicality from quantum theory. Some applications are discussed, including…
Decoherence is caused by the interaction with the environment. Environment monitors certain observables of the system, destroying interference between the pointer states corresponding to their eigenvalues. This leads to environment-induced…
The consistent histories approach to quantum mechanics is traditionally based on linearly ordered sequences of events. We extend the histories formalism to sets of events whose causal ordering is described by directed acyclic graphs. The…
We demonstrate a close connection between the decoherent histories (DH) approach to quantum mechanics and the quantum state diffusion (QSD) picture, for open quantum systems described by a master equation of Lindblad form. The (physically…
The basic ingredients of the `consistent histories' approach to quantum theory are a space $\UP$ of `history propositions' and a space $\D$ of `decoherence functionals'. In this article we consider such history quantum theories in the case…
In this paper we elaborate on the structure of the continuous-time histories description of quantum theory, which stems from the consistent histories scheme. In particular, we examine the construction of history Hilbert space, the…