Entanglement of classical and quantum short-range dynamics in mean-field systems

Abstract

The relationship between classical and quantum mechanics is usually understood via the limit ħ→0. This is the underlying idea behind the quantization of classical objects. The apparent incompatibility of general relativity with quantum mechanics and quantum field theory has challenged for many decades this basic idea. We recently showed (Bru and de Siqueira Pedra, 0000; Bru and de Siqueira Pedra, 2021 [46,47]) the emergence of classical dynamics for very general quantum lattice systems with mean-field interactions, without (complete) suppression of its quantum features, in the infinite volume limit. This leads to a theoretical framework in which the classical and quantum worlds are entangled. Such an entanglement is noteworthy and is a consequence of the highly non-local character of mean-field interactions. Therefore, this phenomenon should not be restricted to systems with mean-field interactions only, but should also appear in presence of interactions that are sufficiently long-range, yielding effective, classical background fields, in the spirit of the Higgs mechanism of quantum field theory. In order to present the result in a less abstract way than in its original version, here we apply it to a concrete, physically relevant, example and discuss, by this means, various important aspects of our general approach. The model we consider is not exactly solvable and the particular results obtained are new.