Why is the universe not frozen by the quantum Zeno effect?

Abstract

We build a discrete model that simulates the ubiquitous competition between the free internal evolution of a two-level system and the decoherence induced by the interaction with its surrounding environment. It is aimed at being as universal as possible, so that no specific Hamiltonian is assumed. This leads to an analytic criterion, depending on the level of short time decoherence, allowing to determine whether the system will freeze due to the Zeno effect. We check this criterion on several classes of functions which correspond to different physical situations. In the most generic case, the free evolution wins over decoherence, thereby explaining why the universe is indeed not frozen.