Abstract
Quantum Darwinism is a compelling theory that describes the quantum-to classical transition as the emergence of objectivity of quantum systems. Spectrum broadcast structure and strong quantum Darwinism are two extensions of this theory with emphasis on state structure and information respectively. The complete experimental verification of these three frameworks, however, requires quantum state tomography over both the system and accessible environments, thus limiting the feasibility and scalability of experimental tests. Here, we introduce a subspace-dependent objectivity operation and construct a witness that detects non-objectivity by comparing the dynamics of the system-environment state with and without the objectivity operation. We then propose a photonic experimental simulation that implements the witnessing scheme. Our work proposes a route to further experimental exploration of the quantum to classical transition.
Highlights
Everyday macroscopic systems are objective in the sense that certain information about their states are, in principle, knowable by multiple independent observers
Quantum Darwinism proposed by Zurek [1] describes how objectivity can emerge from microscopic quantum behaviour: as systems decohere via interactions with their environment, specific information about their state can be duplicated into multiple parts of the environment
These three frameworks correspond to different levels of objectivity, which we summarise in figure 1: Zurek’s quantum Darwinism describes apparent objectivity, whilst spectrum broadcast structure describes system objectivity with partial environment objectivity
Summary
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom 1 Authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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