Self-induced selection: decoherence in closed systems

MARIO CASTAGNINO; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

Oviedo

Congreso; 12th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science; 2003

Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science de la International Union of History and Philosophy of Science

At present, decoherence is usually studied in its einselection version proposed by Zurek and his collaborators (cf. Paz and Zurek, 2000; Zurek, 2001).  According to Zurek (1991, 1994), decoherence results from the interaction between a quantum system and its environment, and singles out a preferred set of states that determines which observables receive definite values. The aim of this contribution is to present a new approach to decoherence, to appear in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, and based on previous physical papers.  According to this approach, the phenomenon of decoherence is the result of the dynamics of a closed quantum system governed by a Hamiltonian with continuous spectrum.  We will also consider the possibility of addressing the problem of the classical limit of quantum mechanics from the new perspective.