dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaA simple example of "Quantum Darwinism": Redundant information storage in many-spin environments
| Authors | Robin Blume-Kohout, Wojciech H. Zurek |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0408147 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0408147 |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10701-005-7352-5 |
| Journal | Foundations of Physics 35, 1857 (2005) |
Abstract
As quantum information science approaches the goal of constructing quantum computers, understanding loss of information through decoherence becomes increasingly important. The information about a system that can be obtained from its environment can facilitate quantum control and error correction. Moreover, observers gain most of their information indirectly, by monitoring (primarily photon) environments of the "objects of interest." Exactly how this information is inscribed in the environment is essential for the emergence of "the classical" from the quantum substrate. In this paper, we examine how many-qubit (or many-spin) environments can store information about a single system. The information lost to the environment can be stored redundantly, or it can be encoded in entangled modes of the environment. We go on to show that randomly chosen states of the environment almost always encode the information so that an observer must capture a majority of the environment to deduce the system's state. Conversely, in the states produced by a typical decoherence process, information about a particular observable of the system is stored redundantly. This selective proliferation of "the fittest information" (known as Quantum Darwinism) plays a key role in choosing the preferred, effectively classical observables of macroscopic systems. The developing appreciation that the environment functions not just as a garbage dump, but as a communication channel, is extending our understanding of the environment's role in the quantum-classical transition beyond the traditional paradigm of decoherence.
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"abstract": "As quantum information science approaches the goal of constructing quantum\ncomputers, understanding loss of information through decoherence becomes\nincreasingly important. The information about a system that can be obtained\nfrom its environment can facilitate quantum control and error correction.\nMoreover, observers gain most of their information indirectly, by monitoring\n(primarily photon) environments of the \"objects of interest.\" Exactly how this\ninformation is inscribed in the environment is essential for the emergence of\n\"the classical\" from the quantum substrate. In this paper, we examine how\nmany-qubit (or many-spin) environments can store information about a single\nsystem. The information lost to the environment can be stored redundantly, or\nit can be encoded in entangled modes of the environment. We go on to show that\nrandomly chosen states of the environment almost always encode the information\nso that an observer must capture a majority of the environment to deduce the\nsystem\u0027s state. Conversely, in the states produced by a typical decoherence\nprocess, information about a particular observable of the system is stored\nredundantly. This selective proliferation of \"the fittest information\" (known\nas Quantum Darwinism) plays a key role in choosing the preferred, effectively\nclassical observables of macroscopic systems. The developing appreciation that\nthe environment functions not just as a garbage dump, but as a communication\nchannel, is extending our understanding of the environment\u0027s role in the\nquantum-classical transition beyond the traditional paradigm of decoherence.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0408147",
"authors": [
"Robin Blume-Kohout",
"Wojciech H. Zurek"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1007/s10701-005-7352-5",
"journal_ref": "Foundations of Physics 35, 1857 (2005)",
"title": "A simple example of \"Quantum Darwinism\": Redundant information storage in many-spin environments",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0408147"
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