Probability, arrow of time and decoherence

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2006.04.007MaRDI QIDQ643123zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Guido Bacciagaluppi

Publication date 27 October 2011

Published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0701225

zbMATH Keywords

decoherent historiestime asymmetry of probabilities

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Physics (00A79) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Philosophy of mathematics (00A30) Axioms; other general questions in probability (60A05)

Abstract: This paper relates both to the metaphysics of probability and to the physics of time asymmetry. Using the formalism of decoherent histories, it investigates whether intuitions about intrinsic time directedness that are often associated with probability can be justified in the context of no-collapse approaches to quantum mechanics. The standard (two-vector) approach to time symmetry in the decoherent histories literature is criticised, and an alternative approach is proposed, based on two decoherence conditions ('forwards' and 'backwards') within the one-vector formalism. In turn, considerations of forwards and backwards decoherence and of decoherence and recoherence suggest that a time-directed interpretation of probabilities, if adopted, should be both contingent and perspectival.

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Cited in

(11)

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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2022585 (Why is no real title available?)
• Quantum and classical Gödelian indeterminism, measurement, and informational collapse into the past
• TIME, CHANCE AND QUANTUM THEORY
• Boltzmann's H-theorem, its discontents, and the birth of statistical mechanics
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• Preface: Focus issue: time symmetric approaches to quantum mechanics
• GRW as an ontology of dispositions
• Can the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics be inferred from the Schrödinger equation? -- Bell and Gottfried

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