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  5. Phase-space measurements, decoherence and classicality
 
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Phase-space measurements, decoherence and classicality
File(s)
PhysRevLett.134.120201.pdf (1.49 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Graefe, Eva-Maria
Melanathuru, Rishindra
Brody, Dorje C
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The emergence of classical behavior in quantum theory is often ascribed to the interaction of a quantum system with its environment, which can be interpreted as environmental monitoring of the system. As a result, off-diagonal elements of the density matrix of the system are damped in the basis of a preferred observable, often taken to be the position, leading to the phenomenon of decoherence. This effect can be modeled dynamically in terms of a Lindblad equation driven by the position operator. Here the question of decoherence resulting from a monitoring of position and momentum, i.e., a phase-space measurement, by the environment is addressed. There is no standard quantum observable corresponding to the detection of phase-space points, which is forbidden by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. This issue is addressed by use of a coherent-state-based positive operator-valued measure for modeling phase-space monitoring by the environment. In this scheme, decoherence in phase space implies the diagonalization of the density matrix in both position and momentum representations. This is shown to be linked to a Lindblad equation where position and momentum appear as two independent Lindblad operators.
Date Issued
2025-03-26
Date Acceptance
2025-03-03
Citation
Physical Review Letters
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/118498
ISSN
0031-9007
Publisher
American Physical Society
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review Letters
License URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Identifier
10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.120201
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