{
  "annotation_id": "5a634cd0-6bf1-4611-b10e-142f5a81fdf7",
  "date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:38.193000Z",
  "date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:38.193000Z",
  "file_hash": "261ddc47821a2c99cd30c223c5cb0c025a57095f848abaa44cbab88abb53bcd1",
  "private": false,
  "record": {
    "abstract": "We study environmentally induced decoherence of an electromagnetic field in a\nhomogeneous, linear, dielectric medium. We derive an independent oscillator\nmodel for such an environment, which is sufficiently realistic to encompass\nessentially all of linear physical optics. Applying the ``predictability\nsieve\u0027\u0027 to the quantum field, and introducing the concept of a ``quantum\nhalo\u0027\u0027, we recover the familiar dichotomy between background field\nconfigurations and photon excitations around them. We are then able to explain\nwhy a typical linear environment for the electromagnetic field will effectively\nrender the former classically distinct, but leave the latter fully quantum\nmechanical. Finally, we suggest how and why quantum matter fields should suffer\na very different form of decoherence.",
    "arxiv_id": "quant-ph/9510021",
    "authors": [
      "J. R. Anglin",
      "W. H. Zurek"
    ],
    "categories": [
      "quant-ph"
    ],
    "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevD.53.7327",
    "journal_ref": "Phys.Rev. D53 (1996) 7327-7335",
    "title": "Decoherence of Quantum Fields: Pointer States and Predictability",
    "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9510021"
  },
  "schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
  "source": {
    "execution_id": "a8668efa-043b-448d-8a7b-a670c32a1934",
    "id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
    "type": "Model",
    "variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
    "version": "0.1.0"
  },
  "user_id": 1000002
}