Decoherence and the Appearance of a Classical World in Quantum Theory (2ND)

When we were preparing the first edition of this book, the concept of de coherence was known only to a minority of physicists. In the meantime, a wealth of contributions has appeared in the literature - important ones as well as serious misunderstandings. The phenomenon itself is now experimen tally clearly established and theoretically well understood in principle. New fields of application, discussed in the revised book, are chaos theory, informa tion theory, quantum computers, neuroscience, primordial cosmology, some aspects of black holes and strings, and others. While the first edition arose from regular discussions between the authors, thus leading to a clear" entanglement" of their otherwise quite different chap ters, the latter have thereafter evolved more or less independently. While this may broaden the book's scope as far as applications and methods are con cerned, it may also appear confusing to the reader wherever basic assumptions and intentions differ (as they do). For this reason we have rearranged the or der of the authors: they now appear in the same order as the chapters, such that those most closely related to the "early" and most ambitious concept of decoherence are listed first. The first three authors (Joos, Zeh, Kiefer) agree with one another that decoherence (in contradistinction to the Copen hagen interpretation) allows one to eliminate primary classical concepts, thus neither relying on an axiomatic concept of observables nor on a probability interpretation of the wave function in terms of classical concepts. 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. H. Dieter Zeh studierte Physik in Braunschweig und Heidelberg, wo er sich anschließend zunächst mit Problemen der theoretischen Niederenergie-Kernphysik beschäftigte. Nach einem einjährigen Forschungsaufenthalt am California Institute of Technology arbeitete er an der Universität von Kalifornien in San Diego über die kosmische Synthese der schweren Atomkerne. Von dort kehrte er nach Heidelberg zurück, wo er Vorlesungen auf verschiedenen Gebieten der Theoretische Physik hielt und seit 1990 emeritiert ist.
Seine Arbeiten zum Verständnis von kollektiven Bewegungen von Atomkernen führten ihn schon früh auf das Problem des Übergangs von quantenmechanischen zu klassischen Erscheinungsformen physikalischer Objekte. Dieses ist eng verknüpft mit dem umstrittenen quantenmechanischen Meßprozeß, der seinerseits einen grundlegenden Aspekt irreversibler Prozesse in der Natur bildet. Indem Zeh die Begriffe der Quantenmechanik im Gegensatz zur vorherrschenden Tradition konsequent auf alle Systeme anwandte, erkannte er die Bedeutung von deren unkontrollierbar zunehmender globaler Verschränkung , was zu dem heute als Dekohärenz bezeichneten Begriff und Forschungsprogramm führte. Claus Kiefer studierte Physik und Astronomie an den Universitäten Heidelberg und Wien. Er promovierte 1988 in Heidelberg über den Begriff der inneren Zeit in der kanonischen Quantentheorie der Gravitation, habilitierte sich 1995 und lehrte an den Universitäten Zürich und Freiburg. Längere Aufenthalte unter anderem an der University of Cambridge, der Université de Montpellier und dem Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Seit 2001 ist er Professor für Theoretische Physik an der Universität zu Köln.

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This book is essential for anyone who is working in the quantum-classical divide." (Contemporary Physics 2005, 46, page 146)

"The goal of this collective book is the understanding, in the framework of quantum mechanics, of the appearance of our macroscopic classical world ... . I strongly recommend it to all those interested in an understanding of quantum mechanics that goes beyond the pragmatic point of view summarized in the formula: 'for all practical purpose'." (Philippe Spindel, Physicalia Vol. 57 (2), 2005)

"This book is essential for anyone who is working in the quantum-classical divide. Most of the material is written in a pedagogical style so that it can easily be used as an aid to start ones research in this field. The size of the reference list is impressive ... ." (J.Hartley, Contemporary Physics, Vol. 46 (2) 2005)

"Since quantum mechanical interpretational issues are usually very sensitive matters, not to mention controversial, the authors are commended for putting together a coherent text ... . is highly recommended reading for anyone with a serious interest in basic problems in physics, notwithstanding being a senior scientist or an advanced graduate student. It constitutes an excellent portrayal of issues related to our fundamental conception of natural science. It also has much to offer to readers who already have experienced knowledge of physics." (Erkki J. Brändas, International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, Vol. 99, 2004)