What are the systems that decohere?
Quantum Physics
2010-02-23 v1
Abstract
The fact that the Environment Induced Decoherence approach offers no general criterion to decide where to place the "cut" between system and environment has been considered as a serious conceptual problem of the proposal. In this letter we argue that this is actually a pseudo-problem, which is dissolved by the fact that decoherence is a phenomenon relative to the relevant observables selected by the measuring arrangement. We also show that, when the spin-bath model is studied from this perspective, certain unexpected results are obtained, as that of a system decohering in interaction with a very small environment.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1002.3913,
title = {What are the systems that decohere?},
author = {Mario Castagnino and Sebastian Fortin and Olimpia Lombardi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.3913},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures