Einselection
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Einselection is short for environmentally-induced superselection, a nickname coined by Wojciech H. Zurek.[1] Einselection is the quantum process whereby the environment persistently monitors a quantum system, causing decoherence between its states. The decoherence process selects a certain subset of states from the enormous Hilbert space. These 'pointer states' are stable despite environmental interaction, which explains the emergence of a preferred basis in quantum measurement. The einselected states lack coherence, and therefore do not exhibit the quantum behaviours of entanglement and superposition. Since only quasi-local, essentially classical states survive the decoherence process, einselection can in many ways explain the emergence of a (seemingly) classical reality in a fundamentally quantum universe (at least to local observers).
[edit] Definition
- "Decoherence leads to einselection when the states of the environment | εi > corresponding to different pointer states become orthogonal:
"[1]
- ^ a b Wojciech H. Zurek, Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical, Reviews of Modern Physics 2003, 75, 715 or [1]
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