Related papers: Preferred Observables, Predictability, Classicalit…
The notion that decoherence rapidly reduces a superposition state to an incoherent mixture implicitly adopts a special representation, namely, the representation of preferred (pointer) states (PS). For weak or strong system-environment…
We provide an alternative approach to the decoherence-by-environment paradigm in the field of the quantum measurement process and the appearance of a classical world. In contrast to the decoherence approach we argue that the transition from…
Three paradigms commonly used in classical, pre-quantum physics to describe particles (that is: the material point, the test-particle and the diluted particle (droplet model)) can be identified as limit-cases of a quantum regime in which…
Using non-relativistic many body quantum field theory, a master equation is derived for the reduced density matrix of a dilute gas of massive particles undergoing scattering interactions with an environment of light particles. The dynamical…
Classical properties of an open quantum system emerge through its interaction with other degrees of freedom (decoherence). We treat the case where this interaction produces a Markovian master equation for the system. We derive the…
The theory of decoherent histories is an attempt to derive classical physics from positing only quantum laws at the fundamental level without notions of a classical apparatus or collapse of the wave-function. Searching for a marked target…
Decoherence in a quantum measurement is typically explained as an interaction with the environment that destroys coherence between the system's eigenstates, a phenomenon known as environment-induced superselection (einselection). In this…
As physics searches for invariants in observations, this paper looks for invariants of probabilistic observation without assuming physical structure. Structure emerges from the basic assumption of science that new information shall lead to…
We give a short, critical review of the issue of decoherence. We establish the most general framework in which decoherence can be discussed, how it can be quantified and how it can be measured. We focus on environment induced decoherence…
Superselection rules induced by the interaction with the environment are a basis to understand the emergence of classical observables within quantum theory. The aim of this article is to investigate the decoherence effects, which lead to…
The irreversible emergence of classical behavior from a reduced quantum description via a canonical intrinsic decomposition of the density operator is analyzed. In the intrinsic reference basis (IRB), defined for a fixed physical…
To understand and explain process behaviour we need to be able to see it, and decide its significance, i.e. be able to tell a story about its behaviours. This paper describes a few of the modelling challenges that underlie monitoring and…
Macroscopic systems are described most completely by local densities (particle number, momentum and energy) yet the superposition states of such physical variables, indicated by the Everett interpretation, are not observed. In order to…
Our observed Universe has a very strong arrow of time rooted in its low entropy starting point. This low entropy start can be related to various "tuning puzzles" about the early state of the Universe. Here we explore the relationship…
Predictive statistical mechanics is a form of inference from available data, without additional assumptions, for predicting reproducible phenomena. By applying it to systems with Hamiltonian dynamics, a problem of predicting the macroscopic…
We sketch a quantum mechanical framework for the universe as a whole. Within that framework we propose a program for describing the ultimate origin in quantum cosmology of the quasiclassical domain of familiar experience and for…
We study the behavior of an open quantum system, with an $N$--dimensional space of states, whose density matrix evolves according to a non--unitary map defined in two steps: A unitary step, where the system evolves with an evolution…
Answers to the question how a classical world emerges from underlying quantum physics are revisited, connected and extended as follows. First, three distinct concepts are compared: decoherence in open quantum systems, consistent/decoherent…
The most general description of the classical world is in terms of local densities (such as number, momentum, energy), and these typically evolve according to evolution equations of hydrodynamic form. To explain the emergent classicality of…
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…