The search for Intrinsic Decoherence
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Tue, 23/04 12:00 |
Philip Stamp (Vancouver) |
Quantum Field Theory Seminar  |
L3 |
| Conventional decoherence (usually called 'Environmental Decoherence') is supposed to be a result of correlations established between some quantum system and the environment. 'Intrinsic decoherence' is hypothesized as being an essential feature of Nature - its existence would entail a breakdown of quantum mechanics. A specific mechanism of some interest is 'gravitational decoherence', whereby gravity causes intrinsic decoherence. I will begin by discussing what is now known about the mechanisms of environmental decoherence, noting in particular that they can and do involve decoherence without dissipation (ie., pure phase decoherence). I will then briefly review the fundamental conflict between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, and several arguments that suggest how this might be resolved by the existence of some sort of 'gravitational decoherence'. I then outline a theory of gravitational decoherence (the 'GR-Psi' theory) which attempts to give a quantitative discussion of gravitational decoherence, and which makes predictions for experiments. The weak field regime of this theory (relevant to experimental predictions) is discussed in detail, along with a more speculative discussion of the strong field regime. | |||