Physics Department
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
e-mail: woo@umdhep.umd.edu
C. H. Woo
Abstract:
A distinction is made between two kinds of consistent
histories: (1) robust histories consistent by virtue of decoherence, and (2)
verifiable histories consistent through the existence of accessible records. It is
events in verifiable histories which describe amplified quantum fluctuations. If the
consistent-histories formalism is to improve on the Copenhagen interpretation by
providing a self-contained quantum representation of the quasi-classical world, the
appropriate quantum state must track closely all macroscopic phenomena, and the
von Neumann entropy of that quantum state ought to change in the same direction
as the statistical entropy of the macro-world. Since the von Neumann entropy
tends to decrease under successive branchings, the evolution of an
entropy-increasing quasi-classical world is not described by a process of
branchings only: mergings of previously separate histories must also occur. As a
consequence, the number of possible quasi-classical worlds does not have to grow
indefinitely as in the many-world picture.
Published July 12, 2000.
Mathematics Subject Classifications: 81P05, 81P10, 81P15.
Key words: Consistent histories, entropy, second law.
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C. H. Woo Physics Department University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 e-mail: woo@umdhep.umd.edu |