Related papers: The histories interpretation: stability instead of…

We study the emergence of decoherent histories in isolated systems based on exact numerical integration of the Schr\"odinger equation for a Heisenberg chain. We reveal that the nature of the system, which we switch from (i) chaotic to (ii)…

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…

It is a well known empirical observation that natural axiomatic theories are pre-well-ordered by consistency strength. For any natural theory $T$, the next strongest natural theory is $T+\mathsf{Con}_T$. We formulate and prove a statement…

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…

We analyze different data of the variation of the fine structure constant obtained with different methods to check their consistency.We test consistency using the modified Student test and confidence intervals. We split the data sets in…

Introduction to the theory of decoherence. Contents: 1. The phenomenon of decoherence: superpositions, superselection rules, decoherence by "measurements". 2. Observables as a derivable concept. 3. The measurement problem. 4. Density…

Ranking individuals based on their performance in different coalitions is a problem emerging in various domains (teams sports, scientific evaluation, argumentation, etc.). Often, for practical reasons, the number of comparable coalitions is…

We illustrate the crucial role played by decoherence (consistency of quantum histories) in extracting consistent quantum probabilities for alternative histories in quantum cosmology. Specifically, within a Wheeler-DeWitt quantization of a…

Transparency is a fundamental requirement for decision making systems when these should be deployed in the real world. It is usually achieved by providing explanations of the system's behavior. A prominent and intuitive type of explanations…

There are many formalisms to describe quantum decoherence. However, many of them give a non general and ad hoc definition of "pointer basis" or "moving preferred basis", and this fact is a problem for the decoherence program. In this paper…

In this paper we derive stability conditions for a switched system where switching occurs between linear descriptor systems of different indices. In particular, our results can be used to analyse the stability of the important case when…

Within the decoherence theory we investigate the physical background of the condition of the separability (diagonalizability in noncorrelated basis) of the interaction Hamiltonian of the composite system, "system plus environment". It…

We review the consistent histories formulations of quantum mechanics developed by Griffiths, Omn\`es and Gell-Mann and Hartle, and describe the classification of consistent sets. We illustrate some general features of consistent sets by a…

Copulas have now become ubiquitous statistical tools for describing, analysing and modelling dependence between random variables. Sklar's theorem, "the fundamental theorem of copulas", makes a clear distinction between the continuous case…

The decoherence mechanism signals the limits beyond which the system dynamics approaches the classical behavior. We show that in some cases decoherence may also signal the limits beyond which the system dynamics has to be described by…

We argue that string theory should have a formulation for which stability and causality are evident. Rather than regard strings as fundamental objects, we suggest they should be regarded as composite systems of more fundamental point-like…

These notes derive a number of technical results on nonlinear contraction theory, a comparatively recent tool for system stability analysis. In particular, they provide new results on the preservation of contraction through system…

Zurek, Habib and Paz [W. H. Zurek, S. Habib and J. P. Paz, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 70} (1993)\ 1187] have characterized the set of states of maximal stability defined as the set of states having minimum entropy increase due to interaction…

This paper presents a simple generalization of causal consistency suited to any object defined by a sequential specification. As causality is captured by a partial order on the set of operations issued by the processes on shared objects…

This paper explores the possibility that an exactly decoherent set of histories may be constructed from an approximately decoherent set by small distortions of the operators characterizing the histories. In particular, for the case of…