Formal features of a General Theoretical Framework for Decoherence in open and closed systems

TL;DR

This paper compares two decoherence formalisms, EID and SID, within a unified framework, highlighting their differences in information consideration for open and closed quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a General Theoretical Formalism for Decoherence (GTFD) that unifies and compares EID and SID, clarifying their conceptual differences and similarities.

Findings

EID focuses on relevant information of the system, neglecting the environment.

SID considers all available information from measurement instruments.

Main difference is the scope of information considered in decoherence processes.

Abstract

Two complementary decoherence formalisms, Environment Induced Decoherence (EID) for open systems and Self Induced Decoherence (SID) for close systems are compared under a common General Theoretical Formalism for Decoherence (GTFD). The differences and similarities of EID and SID are studied, e. g. that the main difference is that EID only considers the relevant information of the proper system S and neglects the rest, while SID considers all possible information available from a certain class of measurement instruments and neglects the non available information.