View source for Decoherence

==Definition==
[[Decoherence]] can be viewed as the loss of information from a system into the environment (often modeled as a heat bath), since every system is loosely coupled with the energetic state of its surroundings.
==Context==
In quantum mechanics, we appeal to [[Decoherence]] as a process that explains the emergence of a quasi-classical
order. Decoherence has no classical counterpart. Moreover, it is an apparently irreversible process. [[Decoherence]] and quantum entanglement are two physical phenomena that tend to go together. The former relies on the latter, but the reverse is not true. Two particles can become entangled by just interacting with each other. See the wiki page on "[[Entropy#Problems|Entropy Problems]]" for a discussion of the [[Boundary Condition]]s that determine the flow of time and whether [[Decoherence]] of an Entangled State has a foundational roles in the origin of time.
==Problems==
# [[Decoherence]] is stochastic, not deterministic. The result is not determinable in advance.
# Classical physics is deterministic and most physicists seem to think that feature is important to retain.
# The Schrodinger Equation (SE) is stated to be the complete description of reality.

==Solutions==
# Everett's solution while working with Wheeler as to say that all of the solutions happens in the many worlds that branched off from each decision.
# Hawking's solution, as reported by Hertog,<ref>Thomas Hertog, ''On the Origin of Time" (2023) ISBN 9780593128442</ref> is a top-down approach that puts humans in the decision process so that even the past is not fully determined. Not clear how that would go over with other species that might also have an opinion.
# Later Hawking would support a vision of our current 4-space reality as just a hologram on the actual 5-space reality. The mathematicians love this stuff.
# The easiest answer would be the the majority of physicists are wrong and that decoherence is the only arbiter of truth and it happens constantly as a string of [[Event]]s which are the complete history of the real world and are described in the wiki page on [[Eventful Universe]].
# Ockham's razor seems to work well - let's go with the simplest solution that actually works.<ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ''William of Ockham'' https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ockham/</ref>

==References==

[[Category: Physics]]