arXiv:1609.05602 · Physical Review A
Emergence of singularities from decoherence: Quantum catastrophes
Aaron Z. Goldberg, Asma Al-Qasimi, J. Mumford, Duncan H J O’Dell
Abstract
Dynamics of two coupled macroscopic quantum systems subject to a weak continuous measurement is studied using a master equation approach and compared with classical and quantum solutions for the equivalent closed systems. Decoherence in such systems can lead to singularities in the form of caustics. The authors show that continuous weak measurements do not lead to the closed classical result and instead measurement backaction introduces noise that softens the singularities.