Low-resolution measurements induced classicality

TL;DR

This paper investigates how low-resolution measurements can induce classical behavior in quantum systems, showing that classicality emerges approximately due to measurement limitations rather than a strict limit of quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a discretized formulation of quantum wave functions to demonstrate how low-resolution measurements recover classical-like determinism.

Findings

Quantum expectations do not reduce to Newtonian trajectories as h->0.

Low measurement resolution recovers quasi-determinism and classical behavior.

The approach addresses quantum superpositions and nonlocal correlations in the classical limit.

Abstract

The classical limit of quantum mechanics is discussed for closed quantum systems in terms of observational aspects. Initially, the failure of the limit h->0 is explicitly demonstrated in a model of two quantum mechanically interacting oscillators by showing that neither quantum expectations reduce to Newtonian trajectories nor entanglement vanishes. This result suggests that the quantum-to-classical transition occurs only at an approximative level, which is regulated by the low accuracy of the measurements. In order to verify the consistence of these ideas we take into account the experimental resolution of physical measurements by introducing a discretized formulation for the quantum structure of wave functions. As a result, in the low-resolution limit the quasi-determinism is recovered and hence the quantum-to-classical transition is shown to occur adequately. Other puzzling problems, such as the classical limit of quantum superpositions and nonlocal correlations, are naturally address as well.