title: Decoherence, pointer engineering, and quantum state protection.
abstract: We present a proposal for protecting states against decoherence, based on the engineering of pointer states. We apply this procedure to the vibrational motion of a trapped ion, and show how to protect qubits, squeezed states, approximate phase eigenstates, and superpositions of coherent states.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68528, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Milman
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: de Matos Filho
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Davidovich