dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaDecoherence: A dynamical approach to superselection rules?
| Authors | Domenico Giulini |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0010090 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0010090 |
| Journal | Lect.Notes Phys. 559 (2000) 67-92 |
Abstract
It is well known that the dynamical mechanism of decoherence may cause apparent superselection rules, like that of molecular chirality. These `environment-induced' or `soft' superselection rules may be contrasted with `hard' superselection rules, like that of electric charge, whose existence is usually rigorously demonstrated by means of certain symmetry principles. We address the question of whether this distinction between `hard' and `soft' is well founded and argue that, despite first appearance, it might not be. For this we give a detailed and somewhat pedagogical exposition of the basic structural properties of the spaces of states and observables in order to establish a fairly precise notion of superselection rules. We then discuss two examples: the Bargmann superselection rule for overall mass in ordinary quantum mechanics, and the superselection rule for charge in quantum electrodynamics.
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"abstract": "It is well known that the dynamical mechanism of decoherence may cause\napparent superselection rules, like that of molecular chirality. These\n`environment-induced\u0027 or `soft\u0027 superselection rules may be contrasted with\n`hard\u0027 superselection rules, like that of electric charge, whose existence is\nusually rigorously demonstrated by means of certain symmetry principles. We\naddress the question of whether this distinction between `hard\u0027 and `soft\u0027 is\nwell founded and argue that, despite first appearance, it might not be. For\nthis we give a detailed and somewhat pedagogical exposition of the basic\nstructural properties of the spaces of states and observables in order to\nestablish a fairly precise notion of superselection rules. We then discuss two\nexamples: the Bargmann superselection rule for overall mass in ordinary quantum\nmechanics, and the superselection rule for charge in quantum electrodynamics.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0010090",
"authors": [
"Domenico Giulini"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph",
"gr-qc",
"hep-th"
],
"journal_ref": "Lect.Notes Phys. 559 (2000) 67-92",
"title": "Decoherence: A dynamical approach to superselection rules?",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0010090"
},
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