Revealing the Emergence of Classicality Using Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers
- Ulm Univ., Ulm (Germany). Inst. for Quantum Optics
- Ulm Univ., Ulm (Germany). Inst. for Quantum Optics; Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (Israel). Racah Inst. of Physics
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States). Physical Measurement Lab.
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Ulm Univ., Ulm (Germany). Inst. for Quantum Optics and Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQst)
The origin of classical reality in our quantum world is a long-standing mystery. Here, we examine a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond evolving in the presence of its magnetic nuclear spin environment which is formed by the natural appearance of carbon 13C atoms in the diamond lattice, to study quantum Darwinism—the proliferation of information about preferred quantum states throughout the world via the environment. This redundantly imprinted information accounts for the perception of objective reality, as it is independently accessible by many without perturbing the system of interest. To observe this process, we implement a novel dynamical decoupling scheme that enables the measurement and control of several nuclear spins (the environment $$\mathcal{E}$$) interacting with a nitrogen vacancy (the system $$\mathcal{S}$$). Our experiment demonstrates that, in the course of the decoherence of $$\mathcal{S}$$, redundant information is indeed imprinted onto $$\mathcal{E}$$, giving rise to incipient classical objectivity—a consensus recorded in redundant copies, and available from the fragments of the nuclear spin environment E, about the state of $$\mathcal{S}$$. This provides the first laboratory verification of the process responsible for the emergence of the objective classical world from the underlying quantum substrate.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001
- OSTI ID:
- 1764949
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-18-27412; TRN: US2206448
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 123, Issue 14; ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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