Quantum Zeno control of decoherence

We demonstrate the possibility of controlling the quantum to classical transition by means of the quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects. We consider a quantum harmonic oscillator initially prepared in a Schrödinger cat state and interacting with an engineered amplitude reservoir. We show that the environment induced decoherence transforming the cat state into a statistical mixture can be strongly inhibited by means of either appropriate sequences of measurements or shuttered reservoirs.