Related papers: Decoherence without Dissipation
Usually, decoherence is generated from the coupling with an outer environment. However, a macroscopic object generically possesses its own environment in itself, namely the complicated dynamics of internal degrees of freedom. We address a…
We propose a resolution to the black-hole information-loss paradox: in one formulation of physical theory, information is preserved and macroscopic causality is violated; in another, causality is preserved and pure states evolve to mixed…
We study information retrieval from evaporating black holes, assuming that the internal dynamics of a black hole is unitary and rapidly mixing, and assuming that the retriever has unlimited control over the emitted Hawking radiation. If the…
We discuss a model of non perturbative decay of dark energy into hot and cold dark matter. This model provides a mechanism from the field theory to realize the energy transfer from dark energy into dark matter, which is the requirement to…
Four models of energy decoherence are discussed from the common perspective of intrinsic time-uncertainty. The four authors -- Milburn, Adler, Penrose, and myself -- have four different approaches. The present work concentrates on their…
In this article we discuss a general information extraction scheme to gain knowledge of the state and the amount of decoherence based on indirect continuous measurement. The purpose of this information extraction is to determine the…
The central challenge in trying to resolve the firewall paradox is to identify excitations in the near-horizon zone of a black hole that can carry information without injuring a freely falling observer. By analyzing the problem from the…
The time development of the reduced density matrix for a quantum oscillator damped by coupling it to an ohmic environment is calculated via an identity of the Debye-Waller form. Results obtained some years ago by Hakim and the author in the…
During the past three decades investigators have unveiled a number of deep connections between physical information and black holes whose consequences for ordinary systems go beyond what has been deduced purely from the axioms of…
Introduction to the theory of decoherence. Contents: 1. The phenomenon of decoherence: superpositions, superselection rules, decoherence by "measurements". 2. Observables as a derivable concept. 3. The measurement problem. 4. Density…
The physics of low-energy quantum systems is usually studied without explicit consideration of the background spacetime. Phenomena inherent to quantum theory on curved space-time, such as Hawking radiation, are typically assumed to be only…
The simplest solution to the black hole information loss problem is to eliminate black holes. Modifications of Einstein gravity which accomplish this are discussed and the possibility that string theory is free of black holes is considered.
Energy nonconservation is a serious problem of dynamical collapse theories. In this paper, we propose a discrete model of energy-conserved wavefunction collapse. It is shown that the model is consistent with existing experiments and our…
It is generally believed that, when matter collapses to form a black hole, the complete information about the initial state of the matter cannot be retrieved by future asymptotic observers, through local measurements. This is contrary to…
It is commonly known in the literature that large black holes in anti-de Sitter spacetimes (with reflective boundary condition) are in thermal equilibrium with their Hawking radiation. Focusing on black holes with event horizon of toroidal…
We show that decoherence is determined by the effective Hilbert space size, and demonstrate that a few degrees of freedom system can simulate a "N" degrees of freedom environment if they have the same effective Hilbert space. The effective…
If black hole formation and evaporation can be described by an $S$ matrix, information would be expected to come out in black hole radiation. An estimate shows that it may come out initially so slowly, or else be so spread out, that it…
We consider the black hole information problem in an explicitly defined spacetime modelling black hole evaporation. Using this context we review basic aspects of the problem, with a particular effort to be unambiguous about subtle topics,…
It has long been recognized that emission of radiation from atoms is not an intrinsic property of individual atoms themselves, but it is largely affected by the characteristics of the photonic environment and by the collective interaction…
We consider a particle coupled to a dissipative environment and derive a perturbative formula for the dephasing rate based on the purity of the reduced probability matrix. We apply this formula to the problem of a particle on a ring, that…