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This study demonstrates how classical behavior emerges internally within isolated quantum many-body systems through intrinsic decoherence mechanisms, eliminating the need for external environmental interaction models. By deriving an effective Lindblad equation from closed unitary dynamics, the research establishes a robust quantum-classical correspondence that persists beyond the Ehrenfest time in chaotic regimes. The findings provide critical theoretical insights into wavefunction branching and the consistency of distinct classical histories arising from microscopic degrees of freedom.
Emergent classicality and wavefunction branching in an isolated quantum many-body system
arXiv:2609.19254v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Decoherence in quantum systems is conventionally modeled as the effect of interactions with an external environment. However, such a prescription excludes isolated many-body systems, which are also expected to display classical behavior at macroscopic scales. In isolated systems, decoherence must emerge internally from microscopic degrees of freedom that are invisible to the macroscopic description. Here we explicitly show that classicality can emerge in such a fashion. We consider a weakly disordered, $3$-local chaotic kicked top of $N$ qubits, where the collective spin sector serves as the macroscopic description, while the microscopic permutation sector acts as an internal bath, decohering the collective spin sector. Starting from closed unitary dynamics, we derive and numerically confirm an effective Lindblad equation for the collective spin variables. In the thermodynamic limit these reduced dynamics converge to a classical chaotic Fokker--Planck equation with vanishingly small diffusion on the spherical phase space, producing a quantum-classical correspondence beyond the Ehrenfest time. The chaotic dynamics evolve the pure many-body wavefunction into continuously branching components associated with distinct classical trajectories. These branches acquire nearly orthogonal microscopic records in the permutation sector, preventing quantum interferences and ensuring the corresponding histories remain consistent.
Abstract:Decoherence in quantum systems is conventionally modeled as the effect of interactions with an external environment. However, such a prescription excludes isolated many-body systems, which are also expected to display classical behavior at macroscopic scales. In isolated systems, decoherence must emerge internally from microscopic degrees of freedom that are invisible to the macroscopic description. Here we explicitly show that classicality can emerge in such a fashion. We consider a weakly disordered, $3$-local chaotic kicked top of $N$ qubits, where the collective spin sector serves as the macroscopic description, while the microscopic permutation sector acts as an internal bath, decohering the collective spin sector. Starting from closed unitary dynamics, we derive and numerically confirm an effective Lindblad equation for the collective spin variables. In the thermodynamic limit these reduced dynamics converge to a classical chaotic Fokker--Planck equation with vanishingly small diffusion on the spherical phase space, producing a quantum-classical correspondence beyond the Ehrenfest time. The chaotic dynamics evolve the pure many-body wavefunction into continuously branching components associated with distinct classical trajectories. These branches acquire nearly orthogonal microscopic records in the permutation sector, preventing quantum interferences and ensuring the corresponding histories remain consistent.
Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el); Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
arXiv:2609.19254 [quant-ph]
(or arXiv:2609.19254v1 [quant-ph] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.19254 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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Full text under the publisher's open licence · 292 words
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