Killing horizons decohere stationary quantum superpositions at a steady rate through the emission of soft radiation (Danielson-Satishchandran-Wald). We ask what information structure this decoherence builds on the horizon. We prove two negative results: (i) the branch-to-branch relative entropy on any exposed local horizon-interval algebra remains bounded in time; (ii) the mutual information between the which-path qubit and any horizon subsystem is bounded by 2 ln 2, so the linear growth is not information acquisition. In the standard coherent-branch model we obtain the exact closed form I(T) = 2 H2((1+exp(-N/2))/2), saturating at 2 ln 2 on the decoherence timescale. What grows linearly is redundancy: disjoint bands of affine frequency generate exactly commuting subalgebras (via a weighted Meyer window construction), and each e-fold of Killing time opens one new soft band re-recording the same which-path bit. We derive the exact fragment formula for I(S:F), exhibit the classical plateau at ln 2, and obtain the linear redundancy law R_delta(T) = N(T) / (2 ln(1/r*(delta))). The record resides in edge (soft-hair) observables, not in local gauge-invariant marginals. Cosmological horizons enforce classical objectivity by Darwinian broadcast, complementing the recent 'optimal interior observer' picture with a many-independent-observers decomposition of the same radiation.
Killing horizons decohere stationary quantum superpositions at a steady rate through the emission of soft radiation (Danielson-Satishchandran-Wald). We ask what information structure this decoherence builds on the horizon. We prove two negative results: (i) the branch-to-branch relative entropy on any exposed local horizon-interval algebra remains bounded in time; (ii) the mutual information between the which-path qubit and any horizon subsystem is bounded by 2 ln 2, so the linear growth is not information acquisition. In the standard coherent-branch model we obtain the exact closed form I(T) = 2 H2((1+exp(-N/2))/2), saturating at 2 ln 2 on the decoherence timescale. What grows linearly is redundancy: disjoint bands of affine frequency generate exactly commuting subalgebras (via a weighted Meyer window construction), and each e-fold of Killing time opens one new soft band re-recording the same which-path bit. We derive the exact fragment formula for I(S:F), exhibit the classical plateau at ln 2, and obtain the linear redundancy law R_delta(T) = N(T) / (2 ln(1/r*(delta))). The record resides in edge (soft-hair) observables, not in local gauge-invariant marginals. Cosmological horizons enforce classical objectivity by Darwinian broadcast, complementing the recent 'optimal interior observer' picture with a many-independent-observers decomposition of the same radiation.
Inflation stretches quantum vacuum fluctuations into the density ripples we later see imprinted on the cosmic microwave background, yet the initial state is a pure, highly squeezed quantum state. The usual explanation for why those ripples look classical appeals to decoherence and the fading of a "decaying mode." This paper argues that the sharper statement is objectivity: the ripples become a fact for all observers, in the precise sense of quantum Darwinism, exactly when the growing perturbation is redundantly recorded across a vast environment of short-wavelength and gravitational-wave modes. The paper models a single super-horizon mode and its environment exactly. It proves that, once the mode crosses the horizon, its amplitude is recorded so redundantly that even a tiny fragment of the environment already fixes it, while the number of independent records grows without bound as the universe expands. Horizon crossing is therefore a Darwinism–encoding transition: an information measure rises from zero to one bit as the mode freezes. And the environment singles out one objective observable — the curvature amplitude — while its conjugate is only globally encoded, readable by no bounded fragment. The results are closed-form, and their exact algebraic cores are verified by proof-checking software. The record strength is not a free parameter: it is fixed by the mode's decoherence, computed from gravitational theory, and the leftover quantum coherence falls off exponentially with the redundancy. In short: the sky is classical not merely because it decohered, but because horizon crossing broadcast it — copying each primordial fluctuation until it became a fact for everyone.
Quantum Darwinism explains objectivity through the redundant copying of a system's record into many environmental fragments. This paper extends that account to observers in relativity — accelerated observers and observers near horizons, for whom part of the environment lies causally beyond reach. Rather than assuming the record structure, the paper derives it from the causal split of the environment. An accelerated observer's accessible records turn out to be thermal, warmed to the temperature associated with the horizon, and the same construction applies to accelerated frames, cosmological horizons, and black holes alike. On this foundation it proves several results: objectivity requires both that a system lose its quantum coherence and that its records stay legible, and these two demands depend oppositely on the horizon temperature; there is a critical acceleration beyond which no redundant, readable record survives even as decoherence continues; and whether an objective record exists is agreed by all observers, though they disagree on how redundant — how objective — it is. At a black-hole horizon this yields "information without objectivity," where a fact can be globally present yet no longer objective. All closed-form results are proved and numerically verified, and the central prediction — a temperature-tunable threshold where objectivity is lost — is testable on analog quantum simulators. In short: near a horizon a fact can still be there for everyone yet objective for no one — classicality, it turns out, depends on the observer and how fast they are moving.
We recently showed that if a massive (or charged) body is put in a quantum spatial superposition, the mere presence of a black hole in its vicinity will eventually decohere the superposition. In this paper we show that, more generally, decoherence of stationary superpositions will occur in any spacetime with a Killing horizon. This occurs because, in effect, the long-range field of the body is registered on the Killing horizon which, we show, necessitates a flux of ``soft horizon gravitons/photons'' through the horizon. The Killing horizon thereby harvests ``which path'' information of quantum superpositions and will decohere any quantum superposition in a finite time. It is particularly instructive to analyze the case of a uniformly accelerating body in a quantum superposition in flat spacetime. As we show, from the Rindler perspective the superposition is decohered by ``soft gravitons/photons'' that propagate through the Rindler horizon with negligible (Rindler) energy. We show that this decoherence effect is distinct from---and larger than---the decoherence resulting from the presence of Unruh radiation. We further show that from the inertial perspective, the decoherence is due to the radiation of high frequency (inertial) gravitons/photons to null infinity. (The notion of gravitons/photons that propagate through the Rindler horizon is the same notion as that of gravitons/photons that propagate to null infinity.) We also analyze the decoherence of a spatial superposition due to the presence of a cosmological horizon in de Sitter spacetime. We provide estimates of the decoherence time for such quantum superpositions in both the Rindler and cosmological cases. Although we explicitly treat the case of spacetime dimension d=4, our analysis applies to any dimension $d\ensuremath{\ge}4$.
Quantum Darwinism explains effective classical objectivity through the selective proliferation of information about preferred quantum states into multiple environmental fragments. Its mature formulations operate within quantum theory, using a system-environment decomposition, decoherence or einselection, and information-theoretic or broadcast-structure criteria for redundant accessibility.This paper asks an upstream question from Registration Theory (RT): what makes a physical distinction a record before that record is described as information available to an observer? Canonical RT answers that retained registration is persistent organization constraining later evolution, that a distinction becomes a physical record only when it remains consequential, and that persistent physical organization is prior to information extracted from it.The paper assembles a theorem-backed finite-model chain now available in the RT corpus. Canonical ACRF dynamics supplies write-retain-read consequential history. The exact finite-amplitude ACRF-4 quotient identifies a nine-dimensional host-host-boundary state. The certified consequence-minimality theorem (DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.34063464) shows that the retained relational boundary contributes irreducible future-consequence directions. The spectrum-preserving ACRF-8 redundant-record theorem (DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.34063500) then proves an explicit local witness in which one quotient-valid source distinction is written into two disjoint retained fragments that are locally recoverable, counterfactually separable, and independently readable, giving RRT(q)≥2 under the stated criteria.The resulting distinction from Quantum Darwinism is precise but bounded. RT recordhood is consequence-based, while Darwinian objectivity is an accessibility-and-redundancy criterion formulated within quantum theory. The ACRF witness demonstrates redundant retained record formation without assuming Hilbert space, density operators, mutual information, decoherence, einselection, Born probabilities, or an observer-defined environment. Therefore, multiple persistent records of one distinction are not definitionally identical to Quantum-Darwinian redundancy.The paper does not claim that Quantum Darwinism is false or that RT has derived quantum mechanics, decoherence, Born probabilities, a mutual-information redundancy plateau, or macroscopic objectivity. Instead, it proposes a disciplined hierarchy: consequential distinction → retention → persistent record → branching → redundant retained records → redundant accessibility → environmental objectivity. The final two steps remain open in RT. A future bridge must dynamically select and scale multi-host redundancy and map consequence-bearing RT records into quantum environmental fragments that satisfy decoherence and strong objectivity conditions.
It was recently shown that black holes decohere any quantum superpositions in their vicinity. This decoherence is mediated by soft radiation through the horizon, and can be understood as the result of the fact that quantum states in the exterior source distinguishable states of long-range fields in the interior. To study this phenomenon and others, we extend Tomita-Takesaki theory to accommodate states of soft radiation such as arise in the electromagnetic and gravitational memory effects, and provide a general framework for computing the distinguishability of general coherent states. Applying these tools, we use the methods of unambiguous state discrimination and approximate quantum error correction to prove some new relations regarding the distinguishability of quantum states, and the quantum information content of soft radiation, and thereby show that a black hole (or any horizon) decoheres its environment as though its interior were full of optimal observers.
Recent work by Danielson, Satishchandran, and Wald (DSW) has shown that black holes—and, in fact, Killing horizons more generally—impart a fundamental rate of decoherence on all nearby quantum superpositions. The effect can be understood from measurement and causality: An observer (Bob) in the black hole should be able to disturb outside quantum superpositions by measuring their superposed gravitational fields, but since his actions cannot (by causality) have this effect, the superpositions must automatically disturb themselves. DSW calculated the rate of decoherence up to an unknown numerical factor for distant observers in Schwarzschild spacetime, Rindler observers in flat spacetime, and static observers in de Sitter spacetime. Working in electromagnetic and Klein-Gordon analogs, we flesh out and generalize their calculation to derive a general formula for the precise decoherence rate for Killing observers near bifurcate Killing horizons. We evaluate the rate in closed form for an observer at an arbitrary location on the symmetry axis of a Kerr black hole. This fixes the numerical factor in the distant-observer Schwarzschild result, while allowing new exploration of near-horizon and/or near-extremal behavior. In the electromagnetic case we find that the decoherence vanishes entirely in the extremal limit, due to the “black hole Meissner effect” screening the Coulomb field from entering the black hole. This supports the causality picture: Since Bob is unable to measure the field of the outside superposition, no decoherence is necessary—and indeed none occurs. Published by the American Physical Society 2024