Generic emergence of classical features in quantum Darwinism

Abstract

Quantum Darwinism explains the emergence of classical reality from the underlying quantum reality by the fact that a quantum system is observed indirectly, by looking at parts of its environment, so that only specific information about the system that is redundantly proliferated to many parts of the environment becomes accessible and objective. However it is not clear under what conditions this mechanism holds true. Here we rigorously prove that the emergence of classicality is a general feature of any quantum dynamics: observers who acquire information about a quantum system indirectly have access at most to classical information about one and the same measurement of the quantum system; moreover, if such information is available to many observers, they necessarily agree. Remarkably, our analysis goes beyond the system-environment categorization. We also provide a full characterization of the so-called quantum discord in terms of local redistribution of correlations.