Einselection without pointer states

Abstract

We consider small subsystems of large, closed quantum systems that evolve according to the von Neumann equation. Without approximations and without making any special assumptions on the form of the interaction we prove that, for almost all initial states and almost all times, the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix of the subsystem in the eigenbasis of its local Hamiltonian must be small, whenever the energy difference of the corresponding eigenstates is larger than the interaction energy. This proves that decoherence with respect to the local energy eigenbasis is a natural property of weakly interacting quantum systems.