Can the environment-induced decoherence solve the measurement problem?

Osvaldo Frota Pessoa Junior

Stephen L. Adler

Anu Venugopalan, Deepak Kumar, Rupamanjari Ghosh

Tulsi Dass

A pedagogical and reasonably self-contained introduction to the measurement problems in quantum mechanics and their partial solution by environment-induced decoherence (plus some other important aspects of dcoherence) is given. The point that decoherence does not solve the measurement problems completely is clearly brought out.The relevance of interpretation of quantum mechanics in this context is briefly discussed.

Hervé Zwirn C

Sebastian Fortin

Decoherence has acquired a central role in the foundations of quantum mechanics and in various debates in philosophy of physics by providing an explanation for the suppression of interference and the emergence of quasiclassical behavior in open systems. However, it is sometimes attributed a broader philosophical scope than is effectively warranted by the formalism, particularly with regard to the measurement problem and the classical limit. This paper critically examines such scope through a simplified reconstruction of the standard formalism of environment-induced decoherence. It is argued that the decohered state corresponds to an improper mixture and, therefore, does not constitute an effective replacement for collapse nor solve the measurement problem. In addition, an operational interpretation in terms of “as if” and the preferred basis problem are analyzed, revealing conceptual tensions associated with the identification of robust states. The paper concludes with a call for prudence regarding the philosophical use of decoherence in foundational discussions.