The internal-environment model of the Stern-Gerlach experiment

TL;DR

This paper investigates a decoherence-based internal-environment model of the Stern-Gerlach experiment, highlighting the role of the screen in information retrieval and the conditions for decoherence in atomic systems.

Contribution

It proposes a model where the atomic nucleus's center-of-mass interacts with a relative system, explaining decoherence and the measurement process without external environment influence.

Findings

Decoherence depends on the screen capturing the atomic nucleus's center-of-mass.

Interaction scales with atomic number Z squared, independent of atomic mass.

Internal environment effects are negligible for larger atoms and macromolecules.

Abstract

The standard interpretation of the Stern-Gerlach experiment assumes that the atomic center-of-mass plays the role of "quantum apparatus" for the atomic spin. Following a recent, decoherence-based, model fitting with this interpretation, we investigate whether or not such model can be constructed. Our conclusions are somewhat surprising: only if the screen capturing the atoms in the experiment brings the information about the atomic-nucleus center-of-mass, one may construct the model desired. The nucleus $CM$ system is monitored by the nucleus "relative system ($R$)". There appear the effective (the electrons-mediated) interaction between $CM$ and $R$ that is possibly responsible for decoherence. For larger atoms, the interaction scales as $Z^2$ ($Z$ is the "atomic number"), being totally independent on the atomic mass. The interaction selects the $CM$-wave-packet states as the approximate pointer basis. Interestingly enough, the model stems nonoccurrence of decoherence due to the internal environment for the larger systems (such as the macromolecules and the macroscopic systems). Certainly, disproving this model (e.g. in an experiment) stems the active role of the screen, which becomes responsible for the "$CM$ + spin"-state "reduction" ("collapse"), i.e. for the irreversible retrieval of the classical information from the quantum world.