Quantum origins of objectivity

Abstract

In spite of all of its successes, quantum mechanics leaves us with a central problem: How does Nature create a "foot-bridge" from fragile quanta to the objective world of everyday experience? Here we identify within quantum mechanics a fundamental process leading to the perceived objectivity and called state information broadcasting. This is the trick that Nature uses instead of a simple cloning. We uncover it basing on minimal assumptions, without referring to any dynamical details or a concrete model. More specifically, we show how a crucial for quantum mechanics notion of non-disturbance due to Bohr and a natural definition of objectivity lead to a canonical structure of a quantum system-environment state, reflecting objective information records about the system stored in the environment.

An extended and refined version of parts of arXiv:1305.3247; published version