Quantum Mechanics in the Light of Quantum Cosmology

By M. Gell-Mann, James B. Hartle. 2018

534 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We sketch a quantum mechanical framework for the universe as a whole. Within that framework we propose a program for describing the ultimate origin in quantum cosmology of the quasiclassical domain of familiar experience and for characterizing the process of measurement. Predictions in quantum mechanics are made from probabilities for sets of alternative histories. Probabilities can be assigned only to sets of histories that approximately decohere. Decoherence is defined and the mechanism of decoherence is reviewed. Decoherence requires a sufficiently coarse-grained description of alternative histories of the universe. A quasiclassical domain consists of a branching set of alternative decohering histories, described by a coarse graining that is maximally refined consistent with decoherence, with individual branches that exhibit a high level of classical correlation in time. A quasiclassical domain is emergent in the universe as a consequence of the initial condition and the action function of the elementary particles. It is an important question whether all the quasiclassical domains are roughly equivalent or whether there are various essentially inequivalent ones. A measurement is a correlation with variables in a quasiclassical domain. An observer (or information gathering and utilizing system) is a complex adaptive system that has evolved to exploit the relative predictability of a quasiclassical domain. We suggest that resolution of many of the problems of interpretation presented by quantum mechanics is to be accomplished, not by further scrutiny of the subject as it applies to reproducible laboratory situations, but rather by an examination of alternative histories of the universe, stemming from its initial condition, and a study of the problem of quasiclassical domains.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Economics and Econometrics, Mathematical Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/38f70b00fe952fe2783cdbb68de078313afffbab

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Citations in the corpus

Between classical and quantum (2005, background): “174See Gotay, Nester, & Hinds (1978), Binz, Śniatycki and Fischer (1988), Marsden (1992), Marsden & Ratiu (1994), Landsman (1998), Butterfield (2005), and Belot (2005).”
Everett and structure (2001, methodology): “…I shall advocate is based upon decoherence theory, and very much upon the lines of the recent versions of the Everett interpretation proposed by Gell-Mann and Hartle (1990), Saunders (1998), Zurek (1998), and others; in section 2 I contrast this sort of approach to Everett with earlier…”
Quantum Mechanics on Spacetime I: Spacetime State Realism (2009, background): “Observers able to monitor and interact with their surroundings emerge as inhabitants within such independent quasi-classical histories, corresponding to particular complex arrangements of fundamental particles, evolved to take advantage of the existence of enduring records that decoherence allows (G”
Quantum Equilibrium and the Role of Operators as Observables in Quantum Theory (2003, methodology): “Decoherence plays a crucial role in the very formulation of the various interpretations of quantum theory loosely called decoherence theories(Griffiths [46], Omnès [65], Leggett [60], Zurek [79], Joos and Zeh [51], Gell-Mann and Hartle [35]).”