English

Decoherence and Probability

Quantum Physics 2025-10-22 v3 History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

One cannot justifiably presuppose the physical salience of structures derived via decoherence theory based upon an entirely uninterpreted use of the quantum formalism. Non-probabilistic accounts of the emergence of probability via decoherence are unconvincing. An alternative account of the emergence of probability involves the combination of a partially interpreted decoherence model and an averaging of observables with respect to a positive-definite quasi-probability function and neglect of terms O()O(\hbar). Our analysis delimits the context in which the combination of decoherence and a semi-classical averaging allows us to recover a classical probability model within an emergent coarse-grained description.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.01317,
  title  = {Decoherence and Probability},
  author = {Richard Dawid and Karim P. Y. Thébault},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.01317},
  year   = {2025}
}