About this topic
Summary Proponents of decoherence-based interpretations of quantum mechanics aim to solve the measurement problem by appeal to the physical process of decoherence, without committing themselves to the full ontology of the many-worlds interpretation. 
Key works The theory of decoherent histories was developed independently by Robert Griffiths and by Murray Gell-Mann and James Hartle. Roland Omnes further developed and formalized Griffiths' approach. The best places to start are Gell-Mann and Hartle's original article (Gell-Mann & Hartle 1990), and the books by Griffiths (Griffiths 2002) and Omnes (Omnès 1999).
Introductions Griffiths 1999
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  1. Does Protective Measurement Tell us Anything about Quantum Reality?Amit Hagar - manuscript
    An analysis of the two routes through which one may disentangle a quantum system from a measuring apparatus, hence protect the state vector of a single quantum system from being disturbed by the measurement, reveals several loopholes in the argument from protective measurement to the reality of the state vector of a single quantum system.
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  2. On the (Im)possibility of Scalable Quantum Computing.Andrew Knight - manuscript
    The potential for scalable quantum computing depends on the viability of fault tolerance and quantum error correction, by which the entropy of environmental noise is removed during a quantum computation to maintain the physical reversibility of the computer’s logical qubits. However, the theory underlying quantum error correction applies a linguistic double standard to the words “noise” and “measurement” by treating environmental interactions during a quantum computation as inherently reversible, and environmental interactions at the end of a quantum computation as irreversible (...)
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  3. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Decoherence.Davide Romano -
    This paper aims to clarify some conceptual aspects of decoherence that seem largely overlooked in the recent literature. In particular, I want to stress that decoherence theory, in the standard framework, is rather silent with respect to the description of (sub)systems and associated dynamics. Also, the selection of position basis for classical objects is more problematic than usually thought: while, on the one hand, decoherence offers a pragmatic-oriented solution to this problem, on the other hand, this can hardly be seen (...)
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  4. The role of decoherence in quantum theory.Guido Bacciagaluppi - forthcoming - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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  5. Conquering Mount Everett: Branch-Counting Versus the Born Rule.Jake Khawaja - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
    Abstract: This paper develops and advocates a rule for assigning self-locating credences in quantum branching scenarios, called Indexed Branch-Counting. It is argued that Indexed Branch-Counting can be justified on both accuracy-theoretic grounds and on the grounds that it satisfies a requirement of exchangeability for probability assignments. Since Indexed Branch-Counting diverges from the Born Rule, this poses trouble for Everettian approaches to probability. The paper also addresses a common argument against branch-counting, namely that the rule is incoherent in light of putative (...)
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  6. Consistent histories through pragmatist lenses.Quentin Ruyant - 2023 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 98 (C):40-48.
    This article adopts a bottom-up approach to theory interpretation, following the slogan “meaning is use”, and applies it to quantum mechanics. I argue that it fits very well with the Consistent Histories formulation of quantum mechanics, interpreted in a particular way that is not the interpretation favoured by original proponents of the formulation. I examine the difficulties and advantages of this interpretation.
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  7. On the Relationship Between Modelling Practices and Interpretive Stances in Quantum Mechanics.Quentin Ruyant - 2022 - Foundations of Science 27 (2):387-405.
    The purpose of this article is to establish a connection between modelling practices and interpretive approaches in quantum mechanics, taking as a starting point the literature on scientific representation. Different types of modalities play different roles in scientific representation. I postulate that the way theoretical structures are interpreted in this respect affects the way models are constructed. In quantum mechanics, this would be the case in particular of initial conditions and observables. I examine two formulations of quantum mechanics, the standard (...)
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  8. The physics and metaphysics of Tychistic Bohmian Mechanics.Patrick Duerr & Alexander Ehmann - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90:168-183.
    The paper takes up Bell's “Everett theory” and develops it further. The resulting theory is about the system of all particles in the universe, each located in ordinary, 3-dimensional space. This many-particle system as a whole performs random jumps through 3N-dimensional configuration space – hence “Tychistic Bohmian Mechanics”. The distribution of its spontaneous localisations in configuration space is given by the Born Rule probability measure for the universal wavefunction. Contra Bell, the theory is argued to satisfy the minimal desiderata for (...)
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  9. Worlds in a Stochastic Universe: On the Emergence of World Histories in Minimal Bohmian Mechanics.Alexander Ehmann - 2020 - Dissertation, Lingnan University
    This thesis develops a detailed account of the emergence of for all practical purposes continuous, quasi-classical world histories from the discontinuous, stochastic micro dynamics of Minimal Bohmian Mechanics (MBM). MBM is a non-relativistic quantum theory. It results from excising the guiding equation from standard Bohmian Mechanics (BM) and reinterpreting the quantum equilibrium hypothesis as a stochastic guidance law for the random actualization of configurations of Bohmian particles. On MBM, there are no continuous trajectories linking up individual configurations. Instead, individual configurations (...)
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  10. The best of many worlds, or, is quantum decoherence the manifestation of a disposition?Florian J. Boge - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 66 (C):135-144.
    In this paper I investigate whether the phenomenon of quantum decoherence, the vanishing of interference and detectable entanglement on quantum systems in virtue of interactions with the environment, can be understood as the manifestation of a disposition. I will highlight the advantages of this approach as a realist interpretation of the quantum formalism, and demonstrate how such an approach can benefit from advances in the metaphysics of dispositions. I will also confront some commonalities with and differences to the many worlds (...)
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  11. Classicality First: Why Zurek’s Existential Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Implies Copenhagen.Javier Sánchez-Cañizares - 2019 - Foundations of Science 24 (2):275-285.
    Most interpretations of Quantum Mechanics alternative to Copenhagen interpretation try to avoid the dualistic flavor of the latter. One of the basic goals of the former is to avoid the ad hoc introduction of observers and observations as an inevitable presupposition of physics. Non-Copenhagen interpretations usually trust in decoherence as a necessary mechanism to obtain a well-defined, observer-free transition from a unitary quantum description of the universe to classicality. Even though decoherence does not solve the problem of the definite outcomes, (...)
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  12. Simon Friederich: Interpreting Quantum Theory: A Therapeutic Approach: Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2015, xiii + 202 pp. [REVIEW]Florian Boge - 2017 - Erkenntnis 82 (2):443-449.
    Simon Friederich’s Therapeutic Approach to quantum theory (QT) sheds new light on the status of the quantum state. In particular, Friederich presents revisionary ideas on how to exactly differentiate objective from subjective elements of the theory and thereby improves upon previous stabs at an epistemic interpretation of quantum states. The book not only provides interesting perspectives for the cognoscenti but is also written with sufficient care and free of unnecessary technicalities so as to be accessible and worth reading for the (...)
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  13. Interpretation neutrality in the classical domain of quantum theory.Joshua Rosaler - 2016 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 53:54-72.
    I show explicitly how concerns about wave function collapse and ontology can be decoupled from the bulk of technical analysis necessary to recover localized, approximately Newtonian trajectories from quantum theory. In doing so, I demonstrate that the account of classical behavior provided by decoherence theory can be straightforwardly tailored to give accounts of classical behavior on multiple interpretations of quantum theory, including the Everett, de Broglie-Bohm and GRW interpretations. I further show that this interpretation-neutral, decoherence-based account conforms to a general (...)
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  14. “Formal” Versus “Empirical” Approaches to Quantum–Classical Reduction.Joshua Rosaler - 2015 - Topoi 34 (2):325-338.
    I distinguish two types of reduction within the context of quantum-classical relations, which I designate “formal” and “empirical”. Formal reduction holds or fails to hold solely by virtue of the mathematical relationship between two theories; it is therefore a two-place, a priori relation between theories. Empirical reduction requires one theory to encompass the range of physical behaviors that are well-modeled in another theory; in a certain sense, it is a three-place, a posteriori relation connecting the theories and the domain of (...)
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  15. Is de Broglie-Bohm Theory Specially Equipped to Recover Classical Behavior?Joshua Rosaler - 2015 - Philosophy of Science 82 (5):1175-1187.
    Supporters of the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum theory argue that because the theory, like classical mechanics, concerns the motions of point particles in 3D space, it is specially suited to recover classical behavior. I offer a novel account of classicality in dBB theory, if only to show that such an account falls out almost trivially from results developed in the largely interpretation-neutral context of decoherence theory. I then argue that this undermines any special claim that dBB theory is purported (...)
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  16. Preface Special Issue Foundations of Physics.Dennis Dieks, Décio Krause & Christian de Ronde - 2014 - Foundations of Physics 44 (12):1245-1245.
    The foundations of quantum mechanics are attracting new and significant interest in the scientific community due to the recent striking experimental and technical progress in the fields of quantum computation, quantum teleportation and quantum information processing. However, at a more fundamental level the understanding and manipulation of these novel phenomena require not only new laboratory techniques but also new understanding, development and interpretation of the formalism of quantum mechanics itself, a mathematical structure whose connection to what happens in physical reality (...)
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  17. On the Ollivier–Poulin–Zurek Definition of Objectivity.Chris Fields - 2014 - Axiomathes 24 (1):137-156.
    The Ollivier–Poulin–Zurek definition of objectivity provides a philosophical basis for the environment as witness formulation of decoherence theory and hence for quantum Darwinism. It is shown that no account of the reference of the key terms in this definition can be given that does not render the definition inapplicable within quantum theory. It is argued that this is not the fault of the language used, but of the assumption that the laws of physics are independent of Hilbert-space decomposition. All evidence (...)
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  18. Quantum Decoherence: A Logical Perspective.Sebastian Fortin & Leonardo Vanni - 2014 - Foundations of Physics 44 (12):1258-1268.
    The so-called classical limit of quantum mechanics is generally studied in terms of the decoherence of the state operator that characterizes a system. This is not the only possible approach to decoherence. In previous works we have presented the possibility of studying the classical limit in terms of the decoherence of relevant observables of the system. On the basis of this approach, in this paper we introduce the classical limit from a logical perspective, by studying the way in which the (...)
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  19. Measurements according to Consistent Histories.Elias Okon & Daniel Sudarsky - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 48 (1):7-12.
    We critically evaluate the treatment of the notion of measurement in the Consistent Histories approach to quantum mechanics. We find such a treatment unsatisfactory because it relies, often implicitly, on elements external to those provided by the formalism. In particular, we note that, in order for the formalism to be informative when dealing with measurement scenarios, one needs to assume that the appropriate choice of framework is such that apparatuses are always in states of well defined pointer positions after measurements. (...)
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  20. How Much Time Does a Measurement Take?Carlos Alexandre Brasil, L. A. de Castro & R. D. J. Napolitano - 2013 - Foundations of Physics 43 (5):642-655.
    We consider the problem of measurement using the Lindblad equation, which allows the introduction of time in the interaction between the measured system and the measurement apparatus. We use analytic results, valid for weak system-environment coupling, obtained for a two-level system in contact with a measurer (Markovian interaction) and a thermal bath (non-Markovian interaction), where the measured observable may or may not commute with the system-environment interaction. Analysing the behavior of the coherence, which tends to a value asymptotically close to (...)
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  21. Exploring Philosophical Implications of Quantum Decoherence.Elise M. Crull - 2013 - Philosophy Compass 8 (9):875-885.
    Quantum decoherence is receiving a great deal of attention today not only in theoretical and experimental physics but also in branches of science as diverse as molecular biology, biochemistry, and even neuropsychology. It is no surprise that it is also beginning to appear in various philosophical debates concerning the fundamental structure of the world. The purpose of this article is primarily to acquaint non-specialists with quantum decoherence and clarify related concepts, and secondly to sketch its possible implications – independent of (...)
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  22. Decoherence: The View from the History and the Philosophy of Science.Amit Hagar - 2012 - Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. London A 375 (1975).
    We present a brief history of decoherence, from its roots in the foundations of classical statistical mechanics, to the current spin bath models in condensed matter physics. We analyze the philosophical import of the subject matter in three different foundational problems, and find that, contrary to the received view, decoherence is less instrumental to their solutions than it is commonly believed. What makes decoherence more philosophically interesting, we argue, are the methodological issues it draws attention to, and the question of (...)
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  23. Veiled Realism? Review of B d'Espagnat's On Physics and Philosophy. [REVIEW]Amit Hagar - 2012 - Physics in Perspective (x).
  24. Quantum Decoherence in a Pragmatist View: Dispelling Feynman’s Mystery. [REVIEW]Richard Healey - 2012 - Foundations of Physics 42 (12):1534-1555.
    The quantum theory of decoherence plays an important role in a pragmatist interpretation of quantum theory. It governs the descriptive content of claims about values of physical magnitudes and offers advice on when to use quantum probabilities as a guide to their truth. The content of a claim is to be understood in terms of its role in inferences. This promises a better treatment of meaning than that offered by Bohr. Quantum theory models physical systems with no mention of measurement: (...)
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  25. Illusory Decoherence.Sam Kennerly - 2012 - Foundations of Physics 42 (9):1200-1209.
    Suppose a quantum experiment includes one or more random processes. Then the results of repeated measurements may appear consistent with irreversible decoherence even if the system’s evolution prior to measurement is reversible and unitary. Two thought experiments are constructed as examples.
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  26. Generation of Highly Resilient to Decoherence Macroscopic Quantum Superpositions via Phase-covariant Quantum Cloning.Francesco De Martini, Fabio Sciarrino, Nicolò Spagnolo & Chiara Vitelli - 2011 - Foundations of Physics 41 (3):492-508.
    In this paper we analyze the resilience to decoherence of the Macroscopic Quantum Superpositions (MQS) generated by optimal phase-covariant quantum cloning according to two coherence criteria, both based on the concept of Bures distance in Hilbert spaces. We show that all MQS generated by this system are characterized by a high resilience to decoherence processes. This analysis is supported by the results of recent MQS experiments of N=3.5×104 particles.
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  27. Compatibility between Environment-Induced Decoherence and the Modal-Hamiltonian Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.Olimpia Lombardi, Juan Sebastián Ardenghi, Sebastian Fortin & Mario Castagnino - 2011 - Philosophy of Science 78 (5):1024-1036.
    Given the impressive success of environment-induced decoherence, nowadays no interpretation of quantum mechanics can ignore its results. The modal-Hamiltonian interpretation has proved to be effective for solving several interpretative problems, but since its actualization rule applies to closed systems, it seems to stand at odds with EID. The purpose of this article is to show that this is not the case: the states einselected by the interaction with the environment according to EID are the eigenvectors of an actual-valued observable belonging (...)
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  28. Decoherence and Wave Function Collapse.Roland Omnès - 2011 - Foundations of Physics 41 (12):1857-1880.
    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 is applied to decoherence. When the organization of a measuring apparatus is taken into account, this approach leads also to an interpretation of wave function collapse, which would result in principle from the same interactions with environment as decoherence. This proposal is shown consistent with the non-separable character of quantum mechanics.
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  29. Alisa Bokulich * reexamining the quantum-classical relation: Beyond reductionism and pluralism.Michael Berry - 2010 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61 (4):889-895.
  30. The problem of identifying the system and the environment in the phenomenon of decoherence.Olimpia Lombardi, Sebastian Fortin & Mario Castagnino - 2010 - In Henk W. de Regt (ed.), Epsa Philosophy of Science: Amsterdam 2009. Springer. pp. 161--174.
    According to the environment-induced approach to decoherence, the split of the Universe into the degrees of freedom which are of direct interest to the observer and the remaining degrees of freedom is absolutely essential for decoherence. However, the EID approach offers no general criterion for deciding where to place the “cut” between system and environment: the environment may be “external” or “internal”. The main purpose of this paper is to argue that decoherence is a relative phenomenon, better understood from a (...)
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  31. Application of Quantum Darwinism to Cosmic Inflation: An Example of the Limits Imposed in Aristotelian Logic by Information-based Approach to Gödel’s Incompleteness. [REVIEW]Nicolás F. Lori & Alex H. Blin - 2010 - Foundations of Science 15 (2):199-211.
    Gödel’s incompleteness applies to any system with recursively enumerable axioms and rules of inference. Chaitin’s approach to Gödel’s incompleteness relates the incompleteness to the amount of information contained in the axioms. Zurek’s quantum Darwinism attempts the physical description of the universe using information as one of its major components. The capacity of quantum Darwinism to describe quantum measurement in great detail without requiring ad-hoc non-unitary evolution makes it a good candidate for describing the transition from quantum to classical. A baby-universe (...)
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  32. Quantum Mechanics and Relational Realism.Michael Epperson - 2009 - Process Studies 38 (2):340-367.
    By the relational realist interpretation of wave function collapse, the quantum mechanical actualization of potentia is defined as a decoherence-driven process by which each actualization (in “orthodox” terms, each measurement outcome) is conditioned both by physical and logical relations with the actualities conventionally demarked as “environmental” or external to that particular outcome. But by the relational realist interpretation, the actualization-in-process is understood as internally related to these “enironmental” data per the formalism of quantum decoherence. The concept of “actualization via wave (...)
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  33. The montevideo interpretation of quantum mechanics: Frequently asked questions.Rodolfo Gambini & Jorge Pullin - 2009 - Journal of Physics Conference Series 174:012003.
    In a series of recent papers we have introduced a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, which for brevity we will call the Montevideo interpretation. In it, the quantum to classical transition is achieved via a phenomenon called “undecidability” which stems from environmental decoherence supplemented with a fundamental mechanism of loss of coherence due to gravity. Due to the fact that the interpretation grew from several results that are dispersed in the literature, we put together this straightforward-to-read article addressing some of (...)
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  34. Decoherence and the quantum-to-classical transition (Springer, Berlin, 2007, Corrected Second Printing, 2008), xv+416pp., ISBN 978-3-540-35773-5, hardcover, 74.85 euro. [REVIEW]N. P. Landsman - 2009 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (1):94-95.
  35. Classicality without Decoherence: A Reply to Schlosshauer. [REVIEW]Leslie Ballentine - 2008 - Foundations of Physics 38 (10):916-922.
    Schlosshauer has criticized the conclusion of Wiebe and Ballentine (Phys. Rev. A 72:022109, 2005) that decoherence is not essential for the emergence of classicality from quantum mechanics. I reply to the issues raised in his critique, which range from the interpretation of quantum mechanics to the criterion for classicality, and conclude that the role of decoherence in these issues is much more restricted than is often claimed.
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  36. Quantum mechanics at the crossroads, James Evans, Alan S. Thorndike. Springer, Berlin (2007). 249pp., Hardcover, US$ 69.95, ISBN: 978-3-540-32663-. [REVIEW]Larsson Jan-Åke - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (1):229-230.
  37. Decoherence And Ontology.Roland Omnès - 2008 - Ontology Studies: Cuadernos de Ontología:55-63.
  38. Interpreting Quantum Interference Using a Berry’s Phase-like Quantity.M. J. Rave - 2008 - Foundations of Physics 38 (12):1073-1081.
    We show that quantum interference can be interpreted in terms of a phase invariant quantity, not unlike the Berry’s phase. Under this interpretation, closed loops in time become fundamental quantum entities, and all quantum states become periodic. Decoherence is then seen to occur naturally as a consequence. This formalism, although counterintuitive, provides another useful way of assigning meaning to quantum probabilities and quasi-probabilities.
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  39. A general conceptual framework for decoherence in closed and open systems.Mario Castagnino, Roberto Laura & Olimpia Lombardi - 2007 - Philosophy of Science 74 (5):968-980.
    In this paper we argue that the formalisms for decoherence originally devised to deal just with closed or open systems can be subsumed under a general conceptual framework, in such a way that they cooperate in the understanding of the same physical phenomenon. This new perspective dissolves certain conceptual difficulties of the einselection program but, at the same time, shows that the openness of the quantum system is not the essential ingredient for decoherence. †To contact the authors, please write to: (...)
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  40. Decision theory and information propagation in quantum physics.Alan Forrester - 2007 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (4):815-831.
    In recent papers, Zurek [(2005). Probabilities from entanglement, Born's rule pk=|ψk|2 from entanglement. Physical Review A, 71, 052105] has objected to the decision-theoretic approach of Deutsch [(1999) Quantum theory of probability and decisions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A, 455, 3129–3137] and Wallace [(2003). Everettian rationality: defending Deutsch's approach to probability in the Everett interpretation. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 34, 415–438] to deriving the Born rule for quantum probabilities on the grounds that it courts (...)
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  41. Between classical and quantum.Nicolaas P. Landsman - 2007 - Handbook of the Philosophy of Science 2:417--553.
    The relationship between classical and quantum theory is of central importance to the philosophy of physics, and any interpretation of quantum mechanics has to clarify it. Our discussion of this relationship is partly historical and conceptual, but mostly technical and mathematically rigorous, including over 500 references. For example, we sketch how certain intuitive ideas of the founders of quantum theory have fared in the light of current mathematical knowledge. One such idea that has certainly stood the test of time is (...)
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  42. Quantum observables algebras and abstract differential geometry: the topos-theoretic dynamics of diagrams of commutative algebraic localizations.Elias Zafiris - 2007 - International Journal of Theoretical Physics 46 (2):319-382.
    We construct a sheaf-theoretic representation of quantum observables algebras over a base category equipped with a Grothendieck topology, consisting of epimorphic families of commutative observables algebras, playing the role of local arithmetics in measurement situations. This construction makes possible the adaptation of the methodology of Abstract Differential Geometry (ADG), à la Mallios, in a topos-theoretic environment, and hence, the extension of the “mechanism of differentials” in the quantum regime. The process of gluing information, within diagrams of commutative algebraic localizations, generates (...)
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  43. The decoherence puzzle.P. C. E. Stamp - 2006 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37 (3):467-497.
  44. Self‐Induced Decoherence and the Classical Limit of Quantum Mechanics.Mario Castagnino & Olimpia Lombardi - 2005 - Philosophy of Science 72 (5):764-776.
    In this paper we argue that the emergence of the classical world from the underlying quantum reality involves two elements: self-induced decoherence and macroscopicity. Self-induced decoherence does not require the openness of the system and its interaction with the environment: a single closed system can decohere when its Hamiltonian has continuous spectrum. We show that, if the system is macroscopic enough, after self-induced decoherence it can be described as an ensemble of classical distributions weighted by their corresponding probabilities. We also (...)
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  45. Quantum decoherence and the approach to equilibrium.Meir Hemmo & Orly Shenker - 2005 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36 (4):626-648.
    We discuss a recent proposal by Albert to recover thermodynamics on a purely dynamical basis, using the quantum theory of the collapse of the wave function of Ghirardi, Rimini and Weber. We propose an alternative way to explain thermodynamics within no-collapse interpretations of quantum mechanics. Our approach relies on the standard quantum mechanical models of environmental decoherence of open systems, \eg Joos and Zeh and Zurek and Paz. This paper presents the two approaches and discusses their advantages. The problems they (...)
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  46. The role of decoherence in quantum mechanics.Guido Bacciagaluppi - 2003 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
    Interference phenomena are a well-known and crucial feature of quantum mechanics, the two-slit experiment providing a standard example. There are situations, however, in which interference effects are (artificially or spontaneously) suppressed. We shall need to make precise what this means, but the theory of decoherence is the study of (spontaneous) interactions between a system and its environment that lead to such suppression of interference. This study includes detailed modelling of system-environment interactions, derivation of equations (‘master equations’) for the (reduced) state (...)
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  47. When Worlds Collide: Quantum Probability from Observer Selection? [REVIEW]Robin Hanson - 2003 - Foundations of Physics 33 (7):1129-1150.
    In Everett's many worlds interpretation, quantum measurements are considered to be decoherence events. If so, then inexact decoherence may allow large worlds to mangle the memory of observers in small worlds, creating a cutoff in observable world size. Smaller world are mangled and so not observed. If this cutoff is much closer to the median measure size than to the median world size, the distribution of outcomes seen in unmangled worlds follows the Born rule. Thus deviations from exact decoherence can (...)
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  48. Remarks on the direction of time in quantum mechanics.Meir Hemmo - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (5):1458-1471.
    I argue that in the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics time has no fundamental direction. I further discuss a way to recover thermodynamics in this interpretation using decoherence theory (Zurek and Paz 1994). Albert's proposal to recover thermodynamics from the collapse theory of Ghirardi et al. (1986) is also considered.
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  49. Quantum decoherence and the approach to equilibrium.Meir Hemmo & Orly Shenker - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (2):330-358.
    We discuss a recent proposal by Albert (1994a; 1994b; 2000, ch. 7) to recover thermodynamics on a purely dynamical basis, using the quantum theory of the collapse of the wave function by Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber (1986). We propose an alternative way to explain thermodynamics within no-collapse interpretations of quantum mechanics. Our approach relies on the standard quantum mechanical models of environmental decoherence of open systems (e.g., Joos and Zeh 1985; Zurek and Paz 1994). This paper presents the two approaches (...)
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  50. Copenhagen computation.D. N. - 2003 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 34 (3):511-522.
    I describe a pedagogical scheme devised to teach efficiently to computer scientists just enough quantum mechanics to permit them to understand the theoretical developments of the last decade going under the name of ''quantum computation.'' I then note that my offbeat approach to quantum mechanics, designed to be maximally efficacious for this specific educational purpose, is nothing other than the Copenhagen interpretation.
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