Emergence of Non-Markovian Classical-Quantum Dynamics from Decoherence

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.06891v1
• Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:47:07 GMT
• Title: Emergence of Non-Markovian Classical-Quantum Dynamics from Decoherence
• Abstract summary: We show that classical--quantum dynamics arise generically as an effective description of fully quantum systems under decoherence.<n>Our results imply that a classical mediator can arise effectively from decohered quantum dynamics.
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• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: The quantum nature of gravity remains experimentally unverified, despite recent proposals to probe it using tabletop experiments such as gravity-mediated entanglement schemes. In parallel, consistent formulations of classical--quantum dynamics have been developed as alternative descriptions of gravity, in which quantum matter interacts with a classical mediator assumed to be fundamentally classical. In this work, we show that classical--quantum dynamics arise generically as an effective description of fully quantum systems under decoherence, providing a bridge between fully quantum and classical--quantum dynamics. We derive the reduced dynamics, which are generically non-Markovian, using an explicit hidden model in which the mediator is coupled to unobserved environmental degrees of freedom. We identify a concrete criterion for when a classical--quantum interpretation is valid: the semi-Wigner operator associated with the mediator sector must remain positive semidefinite, which can be expressed as a positivity condition on nonlocal kernels governing the evolution. In the short-memory limit, the reduced evolution reproduces Markovian classical--quantum dynamics of Oppenheim and collaborators. Our results imply that a classical mediator can arise effectively from decohered quantum dynamics, so that experimental agreement with classical-quantum models does not uniquely determine whether the mediator is fundamentally classical.

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