Mixing and decoherence to nearest separable states in quantum measurements
Abstract
Description
We illustrate through numerical results a number of features of environment-induced decoherence under a broad class of apparatus-environment interactions in quantum measurements wherein the reduced system-apparatus density matrix evolves towards the nearest separable state and, in addition, there occurs a mixing in relevant groups of apparatus microstates (see below). The resulting final state is unique and correctly embodies the measurement statistics even in the absence of environment-induced superselection because of energy differences between these groups of states. The partial transpose remains non-positive throughout the process.
6 pages, 2 figures
6 pages, 2 figures