Universal Description of Decoherence in Scale-Invariant Environments
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| author | Argüelles, Carlos Barenboim, Gabriela Herrera, Gonzalo Krishnan, Tanvi Sanchis, Héctor |
| author_facet | Argüelles, Carlos Barenboim, Gabriela Herrera, Gonzalo Krishnan, Tanvi Sanchis, Héctor |
| contents | When a quantum system couples to a scale-invariant environment, what form must its decoherence take? We prove that the answer is unique: under locality, Lorentz invariance, unitarity, and continuous scale invariance, the effect of any such environment is mathematically equivalent to that of an \emph{unparticle bath} -- a scale-invariant continuum of states -- characterized entirely by the scaling dimension $d_{\mathcal{U}}$ of the coupled operator. This is not a modelling choice but a consequence of conformal symmetry. All decoherence and dissipation exponents are fixed by $d_{\mathcal{U}}$ through exact consistency relations, providing falsifiable predictions independent of microscopic details. We validate the framework using multi-channel transport data from the unitary Fermi gas, where two genuinely independent observables yield a consistent $d_{\mathcal{U}} = 7/4$. We further show that quantum Ising criticality, inflationary cosmology, and high-energy astrophysical neutrinos -- spanning more than 25 orders of magnitude in energy -- are unified as specific realizations of the same structure. A decoherence phase transition at $d_{\mathcal{U}} = 5/2$, where quantum coherence is \emph{protected} rather thandestroyed at long times, is a qualitative prediction inaccessible to any memoryless dynamical description. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_15445 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Universal Description of Decoherence in Scale-Invariant Environments Argüelles, Carlos Barenboim, Gabriela Herrera, Gonzalo Krishnan, Tanvi Sanchis, Héctor High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Quantum Gases Quantum Physics When a quantum system couples to a scale-invariant environment, what form must its decoherence take? We prove that the answer is unique: under locality, Lorentz invariance, unitarity, and continuous scale invariance, the effect of any such environment is mathematically equivalent to that of an \emph{unparticle bath} -- a scale-invariant continuum of states -- characterized entirely by the scaling dimension $d_{\mathcal{U}}$ of the coupled operator. This is not a modelling choice but a consequence of conformal symmetry. All decoherence and dissipation exponents are fixed by $d_{\mathcal{U}}$ through exact consistency relations, providing falsifiable predictions independent of microscopic details. We validate the framework using multi-channel transport data from the unitary Fermi gas, where two genuinely independent observables yield a consistent $d_{\mathcal{U}} = 7/4$. We further show that quantum Ising criticality, inflationary cosmology, and high-energy astrophysical neutrinos -- spanning more than 25 orders of magnitude in energy -- are unified as specific realizations of the same structure. A decoherence phase transition at $d_{\mathcal{U}} = 5/2$, where quantum coherence is \emph{protected} rather thandestroyed at long times, is a qualitative prediction inaccessible to any memoryless dynamical description. |
| title | Universal Description of Decoherence in Scale-Invariant Environments |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Quantum Gases Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.15445 |