A General Derivation of Pointer States: Decoherence and Classicality

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to derive the pointer states of a macroscopic system interacting with its environment, under the general assumptions, i.e., without assuming any form of the interaction Hamiltonian. The lowest order perturbation leads that the interaction energy shifts the phase factors of the state vectors. For a macroscopic system, these factors are the macroscopic quantities even for the very weak interaction. When we group the state vector of the total system by the view point of environmental side, the destructive interference occurs and the stationary phase approximation can be adopted. Only the pointer states then survive and the decoherence also occurs. The present approach is within the standard quantum mechanics as same as the standard decoherence theory, but the meaning of the classical state is much clear.