Environment Alignment and Redundant Record Formation in Imperfect-CNOT Quantum Darwinism

Abstract

Quantum Darwinism explains objective information through redundant environmental records. Earlier work established that imperfect records can be amplified and that environment self-evolution can enhance or suppress their formation. We investigate how preparation, interaction angle, and field disorder combine in an imperfect-CNOT model with random Gaussian couplings and pure, noninteracting environment qubits. We find that, without fields, a single alignment parameter $Λ$ determines the preparation and interaction-angle dependence of conditional-state distinguishability. Increasing interaction imperfection or local field strength can improve or suppress recording. We explain this nonmonotonic response through the geometry of conditional branch separation. For the pure initial environments considered here, the $Z$ basis remains optimal for Holevo information, so field-assisted recording requires no change of the recorded system observable. Comparing uniform local field strengths with Gaussian-distributed strengths at equal root-mean-square strength shows how disorder broadens both beneficial and detrimental field effects. Exact expressions for fragment information and numerical simulations with up to 24 environment qubits quantify the distinction between high mean information and reliable records across fragments and throughout a finite observation window. These results connect the geometry of local information acquisition to the fragment sizes needed for robust recording. The branch-distinguishability analysis itself requires only the conditional evolution of each environment qubit and extends to other interactions that preserve a system pointer basis.