Forty Years of Decoherence: From Schroedinger's Cat to the Classical World

by Claus Kiefer (University Cologne)

Tuesday 9 Nov 2010, 17:15 → 18:15 Europe/Berlin

Auditorium

How does the classical behaviour of a world emerge that is fundamentally described by quantum theory? The key to an answer is provided by a process which was described for the first time forty years ago in Heidelberg - decoherence. Decoherence is the irreversible emergence of classical properties of a quantum system through the unavoidable interaction with its environment. In my talk I shall give a general introduction into decoherence and present its most important theoretical and experimental applications. These include in particular the localization of objects. I shall then discuss the relevance of decoherence for the interpretation of quantum theory and end with an outlook on quantum cosmology and the origin of the direction of time.

Slides kiefer.pdf