Relativistic Quantum Measurement and Decoherence: Lectures of a Workshop Held at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici Naples, April 9–10, 1999

Preface......Page 1
List of Participants......Page 2
Contents......Page 4
1 The Measurement Problem......Page 6
2 Degrees of Compatibility with Special Relativity......Page 8
3 The Theory I H ve in Mind......Page 13
4 Approximate Compatibility with Special Relativity......Page 15
References......Page 18
1 Introduction......Page 19
2 Parametric Down-Conversion and Entanglement Swapping......Page 21
3 Event-Ready Entanglement......Page 25
4 Conclusions......Page 29
Appendix:Transformation of Maximally Entangled States......Page 30
References......Page 32
1 Introduction......Page 34
2 Reduced Density Matrix of the Matter Degrees of Freedom......Page 36
3 The In .uence Phase Functional of QED......Page 38
4.1 Representation of the Electron Density Matrix in the Non-Relativistic Approximation......Page 44
4.2 The Path Integral Representation......Page 46
4.3 The Abraham-Lorentz Equation......Page 48
4.4 Construction of the Decoherence Function......Page 50
5.1 Determination of the Decoherence Function......Page 54
5.2 Wave Packet Propagation......Page 58
6 The Harmonically Bound Electron in the Radiation Field......Page 63
7 Destruction of Coherence of Many-Particle States......Page 64
8 Conclusions......Page 65
References......Page 67
1 Introduction......Page 69
2.1 Superselection Rules......Page 71
Gaining intuition in .nite dimensions.......Page 74
The general case.......Page 77
2.3 Dirac ’s Condition and Gauge Symmetries......Page 78
Non-abelian gauge groups......Page 79
3 Superselection Rules via Symmetry Requirements......Page 81
4 Bargmann ’s Superselection Rule......Page 83
5 Charge Superselection Rule......Page 87
References......Page 92
1 Introduction......Page 94
2 Partial Ordering of Quantum Histories......Page 95
3 Consistent Histories......Page 96
4 Consistent Sets and Contrary Inferences:A Brief Review......Page 98
5 Relation of Contrary Inferences and Subspace Implications......Page 102
6 Ordered Consistent Sets of Histories......Page 103
7 Ordered Consistent Sets and Quasiclassicality......Page 105
8 Ordering and Ordering Violations:Interpretation......Page 109
9 Conclusions......Page 111
Appendix:Ordering and Decoherence Functionals......Page 112
References......Page 115
1 Introduction......Page 117
2 Measurements on 2-Particle Systems with Parallel or Anti-Parallel Spins......Page 118
References......Page 123
1 Massive Field Heat Bath and Two Level System......Page 124
2 Spin-1/2 System......Page 125
3 Oscillator......Page 130
4 Spin Boson Problem......Page 132
5 Instantaneous Change......Page 135
6 Discussion......Page 137
References......Page 139