Emergence of pointer states in a non-perturbative environment

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in a non-perturbative environment, pointer states emerge as localized solitonic wave packets, with their formation and dynamics characterized through an orthogonal unraveling of the quantum master equation, enabling calculation of coherence lengths.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic approach to identify and analyze pointer states as solitonic wave packets in a non-perturbative environment, linking their properties to the gas environment.

Findings

Pointer basis consists of localized solitonic wave packets.

Statistical weights from superpositions match the projection postulate.

Coherence length can be calculated microscopically for a strongly interacting gas.

Abstract

We show that the pointer basis distinguished by collisional decoherence consists of exponentially localized, solitonic wave packets. Based on the orthogonal unraveling of the quantum master equation, we characterize their formation and dynamics, and we demonstrate that the statistical weights arising from an initial superposition state are given by the required projection. Since the spatial width of the pointer states can be obtained by accounting for the gas environment in a microscopically realistic fashion, one may thus calculate the coherence length of a strongly interacting gas.