“A General Conceptual Framework for Decoherence in Closed and Open Systems”

MARIO CASTAGNINO; ROBERTO LAURA; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

University of Chicago Press

Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2006

0031-8248

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.