Decoherent Histories with(out) Objectivity in a (Broken) Apparatus
We characterize monitored quantum dynamics in a solvable model exhibiting a phase transition between a measurement apparatus and a scrambler. We show that approximate decoherent histories emerge in both phases with respect to a coarse-grained extensive observable. However, the apparatus phase, where quantum Darwinism emerges, is distinguished by the nonergodicity of the histories and their correlation with the measured qubit, which selects an ensemble of preferred pointer states. Our results demonstrate a clear distinction between two notions of classicality, decoherent histories, and environment-induced decoherence.
Authors
- Xiangyu Cao
- Benoît Ferté (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1569-1603)
- Davide Farci
Institutions
- Université Paris-Sud (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- École Normale Supérieure - PSL (FR)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques (FR)
- École Normale Supérieure (BI)
- Laboratoire de Physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (FR)
- Laboratoire Médiations (FR)
- University of Florence (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2026-02-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/8qzx-xpfz
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Information and Cryptography
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00