A closed-system approach to decoherence

SEBASTIAN FORTIN; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

Quantum Worlds. Perspectives on the Ontology of Quantum Mechanics

Cambridge University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2018;

The wide success of the environment-induced approach to decoherence took itsdifficulties to the background: only few works were devoted to analyze the assumptions and limitations of the orthodox approach. In resonance with this fact, the different approaches to decoherence arisen to face those difficulties were not taken into account with the care that they deserve. In this chapter we will show that there is a different perspective to understand decoherence, a closed-system approach, which not only solves or dissolves the problems ofthe orthodox approach, but also is in agreement with a top-down view of quantum mechanics that offers a new perspective for the traditional interpretive problems.With this purpose, the chapter is organized as follows. In Section 2, we will begin by contrasting a bottom-up view versus a top-down view of quantum mechanics. In Section 3, the decoherence resulting from the interaction with the environment will be explained from a closed-system perspective. This will allow us to introduce, in Section 4, a general top-down, closed-system approach to decoherence, in the context of which environment-induced decoherence is a particular case. The chapter closes with some final remarks.