Front cover image for Decoherence and the Appearance of a Classical World in Quantum Theory

Decoherence and the Appearance of a Classical World in Quantum Theory

This book describes the phenomena that arise from the interaction between quantum systems and their environment. Since the first edition appeared in 1996, the concepts of decoherence have become firmly established experimentally and are now widely used in the literature. Its major consequences are the emergence of "classicality", superselection rules, the border line between microscopic and macroscopic behavior, the emergence of classical spacetime, and the appearance of quantum jumps. Most of the new developments in this rapidly evolving field are discussed in this second edition: chaos theory, quantum information, neuroscience, primordial fluctuations in cosmology, black holes and string theory, experimental tests, and interpretational issues. While the major part of the book is concerned with environmental decoherence derived from a universal Schrödinger equation, later chapters address complementary or competing approaches, such as consistent histories, open system dynamics, algebraic methods, and collapse models
eBook, English, 2003
Second edition View all formats and editions
Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2003
1 online resource (xii, 496 pages)
9783662053287, 3662053284
851363489
Print version:
1 Introduction
2 Basic Concepts and Their Interpretation
3 Decoherence Through Interaction with the Environment
4 Decoherence in Quantum Field Theory and Quantum Gravity
5 Consistent Histories and Decoherence
6 Superselection Rules and Symmetries
7 Open Quantum Systems
8 Stochastic Collapse Models
9 Related Concepts and Methods
A1 Equation of Motion of a Mass Point
A2 Solutions for the Equation of Motion
A3 Elementary Properties of Composite Systems in Quantum Mechanics
A4 Quantum Correlations
A5 Hamiltonian Formulation of Quantum Mechanics
A6 Galilean Symmetry of Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
A7 Stochastic Processes
References