Related papers: Functional Approach to Quantum Decoherence and the…
Quantum decoherence arises due to uncontrollable entanglement between a system with its environment. However the effects of decoherence are often thought of and modeled through a simpler picture in which the role of the environment is to…
Quantum states of gravitational source masses can lead to experimental outcomes that are inconsistent with the predictions of a purely classical field theory of gravity. Environmental decoherence places strict boundary conditions to the…
In this review, we investigate the question of backreaction in different approaches to cosmological perturbation theory, and with a special focus on quantum theoretical aspects. By backreaction, we refer here to the effects of matter field…
The connection between topology and quantum mechanics is one of the cornerstones of modern physics. Several examples of current interest like the Aharonov-Bohm effect in quantum mechanics, monopoles and instantons in quantum field theory,…
A generalized formal framework for decoherence, that can be used both in open and closed quantum systems, is sketched. In this context, the relationship between the decoherence of a closed system and the decoherence of its subsystems is…
We have found that proposals addressing the old cosmological constant problem come in various categories. The aim of this paper is to identify as many different, credible mechanisms as possible and to provide them with a code for future…
This review article is devoted to analyze the main properties characterizing the cosmological singularity associated to the homogeneous and inhomogeneous Mixmaster model. After the introduction of the main tools required to treat the…
Quantum gravity is expected to be necessary in order to understand situations where classical general relativity breaks down. In particular in cosmology one has to deal with initial singularities, i.e. the fact that the backward evolution…
According to the inflationary scenario of cosmology, all structure in the Universe can be traced back to primordial fluctuations during an accelerated (inflationary) phase of the very early Universe. A conceptual problem arises due to the…
In recent years there has been a lot of interest in discussing frame dependences/independences of the cosmological perturbations under the conformal transformations. This problem has previously been investigated in terms of the covariant…
Astrophysical bounds on the cosmological constant are examined for spherically symmetric bodies. Similar limits emerge from hydrostatical and gravitational equilibrium and the validity of the Newtonian limit. It is argued that the bound…
Contrary to the widespread belief, the problem of the emergence of classical mechanics from quantum mechanics is still open. In spite of many results on the $\h \to 0$ asymptotics, it is not yet clear how to explain within standard quantum…
Quantum computers are considered as a part of the family of the reversible, lineary-extended, dynamical systems (Quanputers). For classical problems an operational reformulation is given. A universal algorithm for the solving of classical…
I briefly review the ''decohering histories'' or ''consistent histories'' formulation of quantum theory, due to Griffiths, Omnes, and Gell-Mann and Hartle (and the subject of my graduate work with George Sudarshan). I also sift through the…
We find a Friedmann model with appropriate matter/energy density such that the solution of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation exactly corresponds to the classical evolution. The well-known problems in quantum cosmology disappear in the resulting…
The importance of the tomographic approach is that either in quantum mechanics as in classical mechanics the state of a physical system is expressed with the same family of functions, the tomograms. The extension of this procedure to…
An example is presented when decoherence and quantum interference gives rise to narrow eigenstates (in coordinate representation) for the reduced density matrix of macroscopic quantum systems. On the basis of modal interpretations this…
A homogeneous and isotropic cosmological model with a positive cosmological constant is considered. The matter sector is given by a massless scalar field, which can be used as an internal time to deparametrize the theory. The idea is to…
Recently it has been argued that a correct reading of the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum could lead to a solution to the cosmological constant problem. In this work we critically examine such a proposal, finding it questionable due to…
A cosmological model describing the evolution of n Ricci-flat spaces (n>1) in the presence of 1-component perfect-fluid and minimally coupled scalar field is considered. When the pressures in all spaces are proportional to the density, the…