Related papers: Decoherence Functional and Probability Interpretat…
We examine the relationship between the decoherence of quantum-mechanical histories of a closed system (as discussed by Gell-Mann and Hartle) and environmentally-induced diagonalization of the density operator for an open system. We study a…
The theory of decoherent histories is checked for the requirement of statistical independence of subsystems. Strikingly, this is satisfied only when the decoherence functional is diagonal in both its real a n d imaginary parts. In…
The basic ingredients of the `consistent histories' approach to a generalized quantum theory are `histories'and decoherence functionals. The main aim of this program is to find and to study the behaviour of consistent sets associated with a…
If a quantum experiment includes random processes, then the results of repeated measurements can appear consistent with irreversible decoherence even if the system's evolution prior to measurement was reversible and unitary. Two thought…
The decoherent (consistent) histories formalism has been proposed as a means of eliminating measurements as a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics. In this formalism, probabilities can be assigned to any description which satisfies a…
With CPT-invariant initial conditions that commute with CPT-invariant final conditions, the respective probabilities (when defined) of a set of histories and its CPT reverse are equal, giving a CPT-symmetric universe. This leads me to…
Gell-Mann and Hartle have proposed a significant generalisation of quantum theory with a scheme whose basic ingredients are `histories' and decoherence functionals. Within this scheme it is natural to identify the space $\UP$ of…
It is shown that if the wave function of a quantum system undergoes an arbitrary random transformation such that the diagonal elements of the density matrix in the decoherence basis associated with a preferred observable remain constant,…
Using the Gell-Mann and Hartle formalism of generalized quantum mechanics of closed systems, we study coarse-grained decoherent histories. The system under consideration is one-dimensional and consists of a particle coupled to a von Neumann…
I review the decoherent (or consistent) histories approach to quantum mechanics, due to Griffiths, to Gell-Mann and Hartle, and to Omnes. This is an approach to standard quantum theory specifically designed to apply to genuinely closed…
The possibility of consistency between the basic quantum principles of quantum mechanics and wave function collapse is reexamined. A specific interpretation of environment is proposed for this aim and applied to decoherence. When the…
We investigate the quantum to classical transition of small inhomogeneous fluctuations in the early Universe using the decoherence functional of Gell-Mann and Hartle. We study two types of coarse graining; one due to coarse graining the…
Within the histories formalism the decoherence functional is a formal tool to investigate the emergence of classicality in isolated quantum systems, yet an explicit evaluation of it from first principles has not been reported. We provide…
We consider Gell-Mann and Hartle's consistent histories formulation of quantum cosmology in the interpretation in which one history, chosen randomly according to the decoherence functional probabilities, is realised from each consistent…
The basic ingredients of the consistent histories approach to quantum mechanics are the space of histories and the space of decoherence functionals. In this work we extend the classification theorem for decoherence functionals proven by…
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…
The predictions of the Bohmian and the decoherent (or consistent) histories formulations of the quantum mechanics of a closed system are compared for histories -- sequences of alternatives at a series of times. For certain kinds of…
We have recently argued that if one introduces a relational time in quantum mechanics and quantum gravity, the resulting quantum theory is such that pure states evolve into mixed states. The rate at which states decohere depends on the…
An eigenstate decoherence hypothesis states that each individual eigenstate of a large closed system is locally classical-like. We extend this hypothesis to account for a typically extremely short time scale of decoherence. The extension…
I give an informal overview of the decoherent histories approach to quantum mechanics, due to Griffiths, to Omn\`es, and to Gell-Mann and Hartle is given. Results on the connections between decoherence, records, correlation and entropy are…