Quantum Theory of the Classical: Einselection, Envariance, Quantum Darwinism and Extantons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that core quantum postulates, combined with limited predictability, can explain classical phenomena and objective reality through quantum Darwinism, bridging quantum and classical physics.

Contribution

It shows that classicality and objective reality emerge from quantum mechanics using a minimal set of postulates and the concept of quantum Darwinism.

Findings

Quantum postulates plus predictability explain classicality.

Objective reality arises from quantum Darwinism.

Classical phenomena are derivable from quantum principles.

Abstract

Core quantum postulates including the superposition principle and the unitarity of evolutions are natural and strikingly simple. I show that -- when supplemented with a limited version of predictability (captured in the textbook accounts by the repeatability postulate) -- these core postulates can account for all the symptoms of classicality. In particular, both objective classical reality and elusive information about reality arise, via quantum Darwinism, from the quantum substrate.