{"paper":{"title":"Intrinsic Pointer Basis and Irreversible Classicality from Coherence Contraction","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"For Markovian dynamics with Lindblad operators diagonal in an intrinsic basis, quantum coherences decay exponentially and supply a state-dependent classicality index.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"quant-ph","authors_text":"Jos\\'e J. Gil","submitted_at":"2026-04-25T13:41:22Z","abstract_excerpt":"The irreversible emergence of classical behavior from a reduced quantum description via a canonical intrinsic decomposition of the density operator is analyzed. In the intrinsic reference basis (IRB), defined for a fixed physical conjugation K (determined by measurement convention, system symmetry, or secular approximation) by diagonalizing the real symmetric part of the state, the density operator separates into a diagonal population sector and a real antisymmetric coherence sector. For the class of Markovian open-system dynamics whose Lindblad operators are diagonal in the IRB, we prove that"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"For the class of Markovian open-system dynamics whose Lindblad operators are diagonal in the IRB, we prove that the quadratic coherence functional is a Lyapunov functional under pure-dephasing or interaction-picture evolution, with each intrinsic coherence component decaying exponentially at a computable rate. This yields a canonical state-dependent operational classicality criterion via the normalized cohesion index.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"The Lindblad operators are diagonal in the IRB (or the dynamics are pure dephasing in the interaction picture); this class-specific assumption is required for the Lyapunov property and exponential decay to hold, and the fixed conjugation K must be chosen by external convention or symmetry.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"In an intrinsic reference basis from the density operator's real symmetric part, coherence decays exponentially under diagonal-Lindblad Markovian dynamics, yielding a testable state-dependent classicality criterion via the normalized cohesion index.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"For Markovian dynamics with Lindblad operators diagonal in an intrinsic basis, quantum coherences decay exponentially and supply a state-dependent classicality index.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"a55a6598753e3137b4d3275bdd515ccc1a4153b19495ca49f476b5ece4145f6b"},"source":{"id":"2604.23304","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":"ef78fdf2-f3d0-4565-ba87-bd5d7370f269","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-08T08:24:05.445901Z","strongest_claim":"For the class of Markovian open-system dynamics whose Lindblad operators are diagonal in the IRB, we prove that the quadratic coherence functional is a Lyapunov functional under pure-dephasing or interaction-picture evolution, with each intrinsic coherence component decaying exponentially at a computable rate. This yields a canonical state-dependent operational classicality criterion via the normalized cohesion index.","one_line_summary":"In an intrinsic reference basis from the density operator's real symmetric part, coherence decays exponentially under diagonal-Lindblad Markovian dynamics, yielding a testable state-dependent classicality criterion via the normalized cohesion index.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"The Lindblad operators are diagonal in the IRB (or the dynamics are pure dephasing in the interaction picture); this class-specific assumption is required for the Lyapunov property and exponential decay to hold, and the fixed conjugation K must be chosen by external convention or symmetry.","pith_extraction_headline":"For Markovian dynamics with Lindblad operators diagonal in an intrinsic basis, quantum coherences decay exponentially and supply a state-dependent classicality index."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2604.23304/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[{"name":"ai_meta_artifact","ran_at":"2026-05-21T09:35:30.618089Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0},{"name":"doi_compliance","ran_at":"2026-05-19T23:16:09.651149Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0}],"snapshot_sha256":"494389fce98a07629c1ac2efb3a5d6e95a283a76492cd62fbf473457b32e4f87"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}