Reduction of the Wavepacket: How Long Does it Take?

We show that the ``reduction of the wavepacket'' caused by the interaction with the environment occurs on a timescale which is typically many orders of magnitude shorter than the relaxation timescale $\tau$. In particular, we show that in a system interacting with a ``canonical'' heat bath of harmonic oscillators decorrelation timescale of two pieces of the wave-packet separated by $N$ thermal de Broglie wavelengths is approximately $\tau/N^2$. Therefore, in the classical limit $\hbar \to 0$ dynamical reversibility $(\tau \to \infty)$ is compatible with ``instantaneous'' coherence loss.Comment: 7 pages. This paper introduced what is now known as "decoherence timescale" and gave a now broadly used estimate, Eq.(1), for quantum Brownian motio

Entanglement Symmetry, Amplitudes, and Probabilities: Inverting Born's Rule

Symmetry of entangled states under a swap of outcomes ("envariance") implies their equiprobability, and leads to Born's rule. Here I show that the amplitude of a state given by a superposition of sequences of events that share same total count (e.g., n detections of 0 and m of 1 in a spin 1/2 measurement) is proportional to the square root of the fraction - square root of the relative frequency - of all the equiprobable sequences of 0's and 1's with that n and m.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Decoherence, chaos, quantum-classical correspondence, and the algorithmic arrow of time

The environment -- external or internal degrees of freedom coupled to the system -- can, in effect, monitor some of its observables. As a result, the eigenstates of these observables decohere and behave like classical states: Continuous destruction of superpositions leads to environment-induced superselection (einselection). Here I investigate it in the context of quantum chaos (i. e., quantum dynamics of systems which are classically chaotic).Comment: 26 pages in Tex, 3 figure

Preferred Observables, Predictability, Classicality, and the Environment-Induced Decoherence

Selection of the preferred classical set of states in the process of decoherence -- so important for cosmological considerations -- is discussed with an emphasis on the role of information loss and entropy. {\it Persistence of correlations} between the observables of two systems (for instance, a record and a state of a system evolved from the initial conditions described by that record) in the presence of the environment is used to define classical behavior. From the viewpoint of an observer (or any system capable of maintaining records) {\it predictability} is a measure of such persistence. {\it Predictability sieve} -- a procedure which employs both the statistical and algorithmic entropies to systematically explore all of the Hilbert space of an open system in order to eliminate the majority of the unpredictable and non-classical states and to locate the islands of predictability including the preferred {\it pointer basis} is proposed. Predictably evolving states of decohering systems along with the time-ordered sequences of records of their evolution define the effectively classical branches of the universal wavefunction in the context of the ``Many Worlds Interpretation". The relation between the consistent histories approach and the preferred basis is considered. It is demonstrated that histories of sequences of events corresponding to projections onto the states of the pointer basis are consistent.Comment: to appear in ``The Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry'' ed by J.J. Halliwell et al., Cambridge Univ. Press. 38 Pages, Preprint LA-UR-92-2051. Content-Length: 12308

Quantum Reversibility Is Relative, Or Do Quantum Measurements Reset Initial Conditions?

I compare the role of the information in the classical and quantum dynamics by examining the relation between information flows in measurements and the ability of observers to reverse evolutions. I show that in the Newtonian dynamics reversibility is unaffected by the observer's retention of the information about the measurement outcome. By contrast -- even though quantum dynamics is unitary, hence, reversible -- reversing quantum evolution that led to a measurement becomes in principle impossible for an observer who keeps the record of its outcome. Thus, quantum irreversibility can result from the information gain rather than just its loss -- rather than just an increase of the (von Neumann) entropy. Recording of the outcome of the measurement resets, in effect, initial conditions within the observer's (branch of) the Universe. Nevertheless, I also show that observer's friend -- an agent who knows what measurement was successfully carried out and can confirm that the observer knows the outcome but resists his curiosity and does not find out the result -- can, in principle, undo the measurement. This relativity of quantum reversibility sheds new light on the origin of the arrow of time and elucidates the role of information in classical and quantum physics. Quantum discord appears as a natural measure of the extent to which dissemination of information about the outcome affects the ability to reverse the measurement

Wave-packet collapse and the core quantum postulates: Discreteness of quantum jumps from unitarity, repeatability, and actionable information

An unknown quantum state of a single system cannot be discovered, as a measured system is reprepare: it jumps into an eigenstate of the measured observable. This impossibility of finding the quantum state and other symptoms usually blamed on wave-packet collapse follow (as was recently demonstrated for pure states of measured systems) from unitarity (which does not, however, allow for a literal collapse) and from the repeatability of measurements: Continuous unitary evolution and repeatability suffice to establish the discreteness that underlies quantum jumps. Here we consider mixed states of a macroscopic, open system (such as an apparatus), and we allow its microscopic state to change when, e.g., measured by an observer, provided that its salient features remain unchanged and that observers regard macroscopic state of the pointer as representing the same record. We conclude that repeatably accessible states of macroscopic systems (such as the states of the apparatus pointer) must correspond to orthogonal subspaces in the Hilbert space. The symmetry breaking we exhibit defies the egalitarian quantum superposition principle and unitary symmetry of the Hilbert space, as it singles out preferred subspaces. We conclude that the resulting discreteness (which underlies quantum jumps) emerges from the continuity of the core quantum postulates plus repeatability also in macroscopic and open, but ultimately quantum systems such as measuring devices accessed by observers, where (in contrast with pure states of microsystems) repeatability is paramount.Comment: Changes in the presentation, figure added, et

Eliminating Ensembles from Equilibrium Statistical Physics: Maxwell's Demon, Szilard's Engine, and Thermodynamics via Entanglement

A system in equilibrium does not evolve -- time independence is its telltale characteristic. However, in Newtonian physics the microstate of an individual system (a point in its phase space) evolves incessantly in accord with its equations of motion. Ensembles were introduced in XIX century to bridge that chasm between continuous motion of phase space points in Newtonian dynamics and stasis of thermodynamics: While states of individual classical systems inevitably evolve, a phase space distribution of such states -- an ensemble -- can be time-independent. I show that entanglement (e.g., with the environment) can yield a time-independent equilibrium in an individual quantum system. This allows one to eliminate ensembles -- an awkward stratagem introduced to reconcile thermodynamics with Newtonian mechanics -- and use an individual system interacting and therefore entangled with its heat bath to represent equilibrium and to elucidate the role of information and measurements in physics. Thus, in our quantum Universe one can practice statistical physics without ensembles -- hence, in a sense, without statistics. The elimination of ensembles uses ideas that led to the recent derivation of Born's rule from the symmetries of entanglement, and I start with a review of that derivation. I then review and discuss difficulties related to the reliance on ensembles and illustrate the need for ensembles with the classical Szilard's engine. A similar quantum engine -- a single system interacting with the thermal heat bath environment -- is enough to establish thermodynamics. The role of Maxwell's demon (which in this quantum context resembles Wigner's friend) is also discussed.Comment: to appear in Physics Report

Topological relics of symmetry breaking: Winding numbers and scaling tilts from random vortex-antivortex pairs

I show that random distributions of vortex-antivortex pairs (rather than of individual vortices) lead to scaling of typical winding numbers W trapped inside a loop of circumference C with the square root of C when the expected winding numbers are large. Such scaling is consistent with the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM). By contrast, distribution of individual vortices with randomly assigned topological charges would result in the dispersion of W scaling with the square root of the area inside C. Scaling of the dispersion of W and of the probability of detection of non-zero W with C can be also studied for loops so small that non-zero windings are rare. In this case I show a doubling of the scaling of dispersion with C when compared to the scaling of dispersion in the large W regime. Moreover, probability of trapping of a non-zero W becomes, in this case, proportional to the area subtended by C (hence, to the square of circumference). This quadruples, as compared with large winding numbers regime, the exponent in the power law dependence of the frequency of trapping of W=+1 or W=-1 on C. Such change of the power law exponent by a FACTOR OF FOUR implies quadrupling of the scaling of the frequency of winding number trapping with the quench rate, and is of key importance for experimental tests of KZM.Comment: Improvements in the presentation (including extended title) throughout. Conclusions (e.g., scalings in Fig. 2) unchange

Foundations of statistical mechanics from symmetries of entanglement

Envariance -- entanglement assisted invariance -- is a recently discovered symmetry of composite quantum systems. We show that thermodynamic equilibrium states are fully characterized by their envariance. In particular, the microcanonical equilibrium of a system $\mathcal{S}$ with Hamiltonian $H_\mathcal{S}$ is a fully energetically degenerate quantum state envariant under every unitary transformation. The representation of the canonical equilibrium then follows from simply counting degenerate energy states. Our conceptually novel approach is free of mathematically ambiguous notions such as ensemble, randomness, etc., and, while it does not even rely on probability, it helps to understand its role in the quantum world.Comment: 12 pages; published versio

Redundancy of einselected information in quantum Darwinism: The irrelevance of irrelevant environment bits

The objective, classical world emerges from the underlying quantum substrate via the proliferation of redundant copies of selected information into the environment, which acts as a communication channel, transmitting that information to observers. These copies are independently accessible, allowing many observers to reach consensus about the state of a quantum system via its imprints in the environment. Quantum Darwinism recognizes that the redundancy of information is thus central to the emergence of objective reality in the quantum world. However, in addition to the "quantum system of interest," there are many other systems "of no interest" in the Universe that can imprint information on the common environment. There is therefore a danger that the information of interest will be diluted with irrelevant bits, suppressing the redundancy responsible for objectivity. We show that mixing of the relevant (the "wheat") and irrelevant (the "chaff") bits of information makes little quantitative difference to the redundancy of the information of interest. Thus, we demonstrate that it does not matter whether one separates the relevant information) from the (irrelevant) chaff: The large redundancy of the relevant information survives dilution, providing evidence of the objective, effectively classical world.Comment: 5 pages, 0 figure