Spontaneous disentanglement and thermalisation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a modified quantum master equation with nonlinear terms that induce spontaneous disentanglement and thermalisation, predicting limit cycle steady states that could be experimentally observed to support the hypothesis.

Contribution

It proposes a novel nonlinear master equation model that enables spontaneous disentanglement and predicts new steady states in quantum dynamics.

Findings

Nonlinear term leads to limit cycle steady states.

Spontaneous disentanglement can be incorporated into quantum dynamics.

Experimental observation of limit cycles could support the hypothesis.

Abstract

The problem of quantum measurement can be partially resolved by incorporating a process of spontaneous disentanglement into quantum dynamics. We propose a modified master equation, which contains a nonlinear term giving rise to both spontaneous disentanglement and thermalisation. We find that the added nonlinear term enables limit cycle steady states, which are prohibited in standard quantum mechanics. This finding suggests that an experimental observation of such a limit cycle steady state can provide an important evidence supporting the spontaneous disentanglement hypothesis.