Decoherence of Quantum Fields: Pointer States and Predictability

Details Decoherence of Quantum Fields: Pointer States and Predictability Decoherence of Quantum Fields: Pointer States and Predictability

1995-10-20

arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9510021v1

Phys.Rev. D53 (1996) 7327-7335

Physics

Quantum Physics

11 pages, RevTeX, 1 figure (tar compressed, uu-encoded PostScript)

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.53.7327

We study environmentally induced decoherence of an electromagnetic field in a homogeneous, linear, dielectric medium. We derive an independent oscillator model for such an environment, which is sufficiently realistic to encompass essentially all of linear physical optics. Applying the ``predictability sieve'' to the quantum field, and introducing the concept of a ``quantum halo'', we recover the familiar dichotomy between background field configurations and photon excitations around them. We are then able to explain why a typical linear environment for the electromagnetic field will effectively render the former classically distinct, but leave the latter fully quantum mechanical. Finally, we suggest how and why quantum matter fields should suffer a very different form of decoherence.

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