Related papers: The metaphysics of decoherence
I study the scaling behavior in the physical parameters of dynamical entropies, classical and quantum, in a specifically devised model of collision-induced decoherence in a chaotic system. The treatment is fully canonical and no…
In this paper we discuss the representational realist stance as a pluralist ontic approach to inter-theoretic relationships. Our stance stresses the fact that physical theories require the necessary consideration of a conceptual level of…
We analyse a decoherence effect, caused by the gravitational interaction between a massive body and the electromagnetic field. Assuming a quantum version of the light bending interaction, we show that it leads to decoherence of the mass if…
In order to analyze the effect of chaos or order on the rate of decoherence in a subsystem, we aim to distinguish effects of the two types of dynamics by choosing initial states as random product states from two factor spaces representing…
Among the many worthwhile quantum experiments taking advantage of long baselines in space, this white paper points to the far-reaching significance of gravitational decoherence experiments. These experiments can provide clues as to whether…
When one takes into account gravitation, the measurement of space and time cannot be carried out with infinite accuracy. When quantum mechanics is reformulated taking into account this lack of accuracy, the resolution of the measurement…
An increasing number of papers have appeared in recent years on decoherence in quantum gravity at the Planck energy. We discuss the meaning of decoherence in quantum gravity starting from the common notion that quantum gravity is a theory…
Free will discourse is primarily centred around the thesis of determinism. Much of the literature takes determinism as its starting premise, assuming it true for the sake of discussion, and then proceeds to present arguments for why, if…
This is a preliminary version of an article to appear in the forthcoming Ashgate Companion to the New Philosophy of Physics. I don't advocate any particular approach to the measurement problem (not here, at any rate!) but I do focus on the…
As illustrated by Schrodingers cat, there are often several macroscopically different versions of reality simultaneously existing in the wave function. On the face of it, this would seem to imply that an observer could perceive a…
This pseudo-paper consists of excerpts drawn from two of my quantum-email samizdats. Section 1 draws a picture of a physical world whose essence is ``Darwinism all the way down.'' Section 2 outlines how quantum theory should be viewed in…
The question of classicality is addressed in relation with the shape of the nuclear skeleton of molecular systems. As the most natural environment, the electrons of the molecule are considered as continuously monitoring agents for the…
Here we analyze the relationship between quantum contextuality and decoherence in interference experiments with matter particles by means of a simple reduced quantum-trajectory model, which attempts to simulate the behavior of the…
We discuss various definitions of decoherence and how it can be measured. We compare and contrast decoherence in quantum systems with an infinite number of eigenstates (such as the free particle and the oscillator) and spin systems. In the…
We look at the transition to the semiclassical behaviour and the decoherence process for the inhomogeneous perturbations in the inflationary universe. Two different decoherence mechanisms appear: one dynamical, accompanied with a…
We discuss the interplay of wave packet decoherence and decoherence induced by quantum gravity via interactions with spacetime foam for high energy astrophysical neutrinos. In this context we point out a compelling consequence of the…
We point out that the (pseudo-)conformal Universe scenario may be realized as decay of conformally invariant, metastable vacuum, which proceeds via spontaneous nucleation and subsequent growth of a bubble of a putative new phase. We study…
In resisting attempts to explain the unity of a whole in terms of a multiplicity of interacting parts, quantum mechanics calls for an explanatory concept that proceeds in the opposite direction: from unity to multiplicity. It concerns the…
Two manifestations of decoherence, called instantaneous and dynamical, are investigated. The former reflects the suppression of the interference between the components of the current state while the latter reflects that within the initial…
We continue our efforts to understand, within the framework of the quantum mechanics of the universe as a whole, the quasiclassical realm of familiar experience as a feature emergent from the Hamiltonian of the elementary particles and the…