Quantumness and quantum to classical transition in the generalized Rabi model

Abstract

The quantum to classical transition (QCT) is one of the central mysteries in quantum physics. This process is generally interpreted as state collapse from measurement or decoherence from interacting with the environment. Here we define the quantumness of a Hamiltonian by the free energy difference between its quantum and classical descriptions, which vanishes during QCT. We apply this criterion to the many-body Rabi model and study its scaling law across the phase transition, finding that not only the temperature and Planck constant, but also all the model parameters are important for this transition. We show that the Jaynes-Cummings and anti Jaynes-Cummings models exhibit greater quantumness than the Rabi model. Moreover, we show that the rotating wave and anti-rotating wave terms in this model have opposite quantumness in QCT. We demonstrate that the quantumness may be enhanced or suppressed at the critical point. Finally, we estimate the quantumness of the Rabi model in current trapped ion experiments. The quantumness provides an important tool to characterize the QCT in a vast number of many-body models.