This detailed, yet accessible introduction to the exciting field of quantum decoherence guides the reader through the basics and then explains the essential consequences of the phenomenon for our understanding of the world. Among other things, the book examines how the classical world of our experience can emerge from quantum mechanics, and reviews the implications of decoherence for the various interpretations of quantum mechanics. The author also reviews recent experiments confirming the puzzling consequences of the quantum superposition principle ("Schrödinger kittens") and making decoherence processes directly observable. The book includes an introduction to quantum computing and the role of decoherence and a discussion of quantum mechanics and the brain.

Unique in its wide range of the covered material, this book emphasizes foundational implications without neglecting detailed descriptions of experiments and applications Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Maximilian Schlosshauer is an internationally recognized researcher in the foundations of quantum mechanics in general and in quantum decoherence in particular. After completing his undergraduate education at Freiburg University, Germany, he graduated from Lund University, Sweden, with a Master of Science degree in 2001. He received a Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2005. His postgraduate research (with Arthur Fine) was focused on decoherence and the quantum-to-classical transition. He is currently an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Besides his interest in decoherence and the foundations of quantum mechanics, he has also contributed important research in theoretical biophysics.

Inhalt
Introducing Decoherence.- The Basic Formalism and Interpretation of Decoherence.- Decoherence Is Everywhere: Localization Due to Environmental Scattering.- Master-Equation Formulations of Decoherence.- A World of Spins and Oscillators: Canonical Models for Decoherence.- Of Buckey Balls and SQUIDs: Observing Decoherence in Action.- Decoherence and Quantum Computing.- The Role of Decoherence in Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics.- Observations, the Quantum Brain, and Decoherence.