Contextuality, decoherence and quantum trajectories

Abstract

Here we analyze the relationship between quantum contextuality and decoherence in interference experiments with matter particles by means of a simple reduced quantum-trajectory model, which attempts to simulate the behavior of the projections of multi-dimensional, system-plus-environment Bohmian trajectories onto the subspace of the reduced system. This model allows us to understand the crossing of the subsystem trajectories as a combined effect of interference quenching and erasure of 'which-way' information, which can be of utility to interpret decoherence effects in many-dimensional systems where full Bohmian treatments become prohibitive computationally. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.