Related papers: Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Cosmology
Three existing interpretations of quantum mechanics, given by Heisenberg, Bohm and Madelung, are examined to describe dissipative quantum systems as well. It is found that the Madelung quantum hydrodynamics is the only correct approach. A…
As experiments continue to push the quantum-classical boundary using increasingly complex dynamical systems, the interpretation of experimental data becomes more and more challenging: when the observations are noisy, indirect, and limited,…
Various physical effects resulting from decoherence are discussed in the algebraic framework. In particular, it is shown that the environment may induce not only classical properties like superselection rules, pointer states or even…
The quantum fluctuations of a physical property can be observed in the measurement statistics of any measurement that is at least partially sensitive to that physical property. Quantum theory indicates that the effective distribution of…
The notion of a macroscopic quantum state must be pinned down in order to assess how well experiments probe the large-scale limits of quantum mechanics. However, the issue of quantifying so-called quantum macroscopicity is fraught with…
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…
Developments in theoretical cosmology in the recent decades show a close connection with particle physics, quantum gravity and unified theories. Answers or hints to many fundamental questions in cosmology like the homogeneity and isotropy…
The question about the existence of so-called ``hidden'' variables in quantum mechanics and the perception of the completeness of quantum mechanics are two sides of the same coin. Quantum analytical mechanics constitutes a completion of…
New exact results about the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of open quantum systems at arbitrary timescales are obtained by considering all possible variations of initial conditions of a system, its environment, and correlations between them.…
The probability operator is derived from first principles for an equilibrium quantum system. It is also shown that the superposition states collapse into a mixture of states giving the conventional von Neumann trace form for the quantum…
We study the possibility of applying statistical mechanics to generally covariant quantum theories with a vanishing Hamiltonian. We show that (under certain appropiate conditions) this makes sense, in spite of the absence of a notion of…
In systems considered for quantum computing, i.e., for control of quantum dynamics with the goal of processing information coherently, decoherence and deviation from pure quantum states, are the main obstacles to fault-tolerant error…
Quantum decoherence plays a pivotal role in the dynamical description of the quantum-to-classical transition and is the main impediment to the realization of devices for quantum information processing. This paper gives an overview of the…
We clarify the way in which cosmological perturbations of quantum origin, produced during inflation, assume classical properties. Two features play an important role in this process: First, the dynamics of fluctuations which are presently…
This thesis presents a theoretical investigation into the quantum field theoretic aspects of quantum correlations and decoherence in the cosmological spacetimes. We shall focus on the inflationary or dark energy dominated phase of the…
The difficult issues related to the interpretation of quantum mechanics and, in particular, the "measurement problem" are revisited using as motivation the process of generation of structure from quantum fluctuations in inflationary…
Symmetries are widely used in modeling quantum systems but they do not contribute in postulates of quantum mechanics. Here we argue that logical, mathematical, and observational evidence require that symmetry should be considered as a…
Quantum cosmology has traditionally been studied at the level of symmetry-reduced minisuperspace models, analyzing the behavior of wave functions. However, in the absence of a complete full setting of quantum gravity and detailed knowledge…
Fluctuation terms and higher moments of a quantum state imply corrections to the classical equations of motion that may have implications in early-universe cosmology, for instance in the state-dependent form of effective potentials. In…
We demonstrate the equilibration of isolated macroscopic quantum systems, prepared in non-equilibrium mixed states with significant population of many energy levels, and observed by instruments with a reasonably bound working range compared…