Why Is the Universe Not Frozen by the Quantum Zeno Effect?

Autor(en)

Antoine Soulas

Abstrakt

We built a discrete model that simulates the ubiquitous competition between the free internal evolution of a two-level system and the decoherence induced by the interaction with its surrounding environment. It is aimed at being as universal as possible, so that no specific Hamiltonian is assumed. This leads to an analytic criterion, depending on the level of short time decoherence, allowing one to determine whether the system will freeze due to the Zeno effect. We checked this criterion on several classes of functions which correspond to different physical situations. In the most generic case, the free evolution wins over decoherence, thereby explaining why the universe is indeed not frozen. We finally make a quantitative comparison with the continuous model of Presilla, Onofrio and Tambini, based on a Lindblad’s master equation, a find good agreement at least in the low coupling regime.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)

Journal

Entropy

Band

27

Anzahl der Seiten

11

ISSN

1099-4300

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/e27060652

Publikationsdatum

06-2025

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103025 Quantenmechanik, 103019 Mathematische Physik

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Information systems, Mathematical Physics, Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous), Allgemeine Physik und Astronomie, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/295a3233-20c2-448f-965f-beccd0f3fb78