Generic emergence of objectivity of observables in infinite dimensions

TL;DR

This paper extends the understanding of Quantum Darwinism by demonstrating how objectivity of observables emerges in infinite-dimensional quantum systems, such as harmonic oscillators, using a modified mathematical approach.

Contribution

It introduces a new framework to analyze the emergence of objectivity in infinite-dimensional systems, broadening the scope of Quantum Darwinism beyond finite dimensions.

Findings

Objectivity emerges for finite energy systems.

Objectivity also emerges for states with exponential energy cut-off.

Applicable to bounded-energy Gaussian states.

Abstract

Quantum Darwinism posits that information becomes objective whenever multiple observers indirectly probe a quantum system by each measuring a fraction of the environment. It was recently shown that objectivity of observables emerges generically from the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics, whenever the system of interest has finite dimensions and the number of environment fragments is large [F. G. S. L. Brand\~ao, M. Piani, and P. Horodecki, Nature Commun. 6, 7908 (2015)]. Despite the importance of this result, it necessarily excludes many practical systems of interest that are infinite-dimensional, including harmonic oscillators. Extending the study of Quantum Darwinism to infinite dimensions is a nontrivial task: we tackle it here by using a modified diamond norm, suitable to quantify the distinguishability of channels in infinite dimensions. We prove two theorems that bound the emergence of objectivity, first for finite energy systems, and then for systems that can only be prepared in states with an exponential energy cut-off. We show that the latter class of states includes any bounded-energy subset of single-mode Gaussian states.