Degree of information accessibility: a precursor of the quantum--classical transition

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the accessibility of information in a probe system influences the quantum-classical transition, emphasizing that information accessibility, rather than interaction-generated information, is key to understanding this transition, supported by interferometric experiments.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that information accessibility, not just interaction, drives the quantum-classical transition, filling a gap in the study of arbitrary probe systems.

Findings

Information accessibility is crucial for the quantum-classical transition.

Experimental validation was achieved through interferometric experiments.

Provides a physical interpretation of classical interactions in Ramsey Zones.

Abstract

One of the fundamental problems with the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, according to Bohr, is the fact that "our usual description of physical phenomena is based entirely on the idea that the phenomena concerned may be observed without disturbing them appreciably". Furthermore in his articles discussing the subject Bohr argues that the action of the probe will be affected by the system and inasmuch the system will be affected by the probe. Specifically in Gedanken experiments he tests the wave-particle duality of the system and implicitly assumes that the probe is also a quantum system. A universal character can only be attributed to Quantum Mechanics provided a complementarity relation is also valid for the probe. As a consequence the state system-probe becomes entangled. In the past fourty years complementarity tests have been proposed. However, much less attention has been paid to the study of an arbitrary probe system. In the present contribution, we fill in this gap and show that the key ingredient for the quantum-classical transition is not necessarily the information generated by the system-probe interaction but rather by its accessibility. Our results have been successfully tested in the interferometric experiment. Our results also allow for a simple physical interpretation of the physics of Ramsey Zones where one photon (average) interacts with a two level atom in a classical manner, i.e., no entanglement is generated.