Quantum approach to coupling classical and quantum dynamics

Abstract

We present a consistent framework of coupled classical and quantum dynamics. Our result allows us to overcome severe limitations of previous phenomenological approaches, like evolutions that do not preserve the positivity of quantum states or that allow to activate quantum nonlocality for superluminal signaling. A `hybrid' quantum-classical density is introduced and its evolution equation derived. The implications and applications of our result are numerous: it incorporates the back-reaction of quantum on classical variables, it resolves fundamental problems encountered in standard mean field theories, and remarkably, also the quantum measurement process, i.e. the most controversial example of quantum-classical interaction is consistently described within our approach, leading to a theory of dynamical collapse.