On noise-induced superselection rules

Abstract

The dynamical properties of a quantum system can be profoundly influenced by its environment. Usually, the environment provokes decoherence and its action on the system can often be schematized by adding a noise term in the Hamiltonian. However, other scenarios are possible: we show that by increasing the strength of the noise, the Hilbert space of the system gradually splits into invariant subspaces, among which transitions become increasingly difficult. The phenomenon is equivalent to the formation of the quantum Zeno subspaces. We explore the possibility that noise can {\em prevent}, rather than provoke decoherence.