dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaConsistent-Histories Description of A World of Increasing Entropy
| Authors | C. H. Woo |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/9901055 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9901055 |
Abstract
A distinction is made between two kinds of consistent histories: (1) robust histories consistent by virtue of decoherence, and (2) verifiable histories consistent through the existence of accessible records. It is events in verifiable histories which describe amplified quantum fluctuations. If the consistent-histories formalism is to improve on the Copenhagen interpretation by providing a self-contained quantum representation of the quasi-classical world, the appropriate quantum state must track closely all macroscopic phenomena, and the von Neumann entropy of that quantum state ought to change in the same direction as the statistical entropy of the macro-world. Since the von Neumann entropy tends to decrease under successive branchings, the evolution of an entropy-increasing quasi-classical world is not described by the process of branchings only: mergings of previously separate histories must also occur. As a consequence, the number of possible quasi-classical worlds does not have to grow indefinitely as in the many-world picture.
{
"annotation_id": "fa00dee1-7f0f-4601-bf43-e8464bf4f2f0",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:45.240000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:45.240000Z",
"file_hash": "3445ea6ac4c1c5e5d68a4349a2031d2dadc93aa706fdcc9deebfdb5f8292ed24",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "A distinction is made between two kinds of consistent histories: (1) robust\nhistories consistent by virtue of decoherence, and (2) verifiable histories\nconsistent through the existence of accessible records. It is events in\nverifiable histories which describe amplified quantum fluctuations. If the\nconsistent-histories formalism is to improve on the Copenhagen interpretation\nby providing a self-contained quantum representation of the quasi-classical\nworld, the appropriate quantum state must track closely all macroscopic\nphenomena, and the von Neumann entropy of that quantum state ought to change in\nthe same direction as the statistical entropy of the macro-world. Since the von\nNeumann entropy tends to decrease under successive branchings, the evolution of\nan entropy-increasing quasi-classical world is not described by the process of\nbranchings only: mergings of previously separate histories must also occur. As\na consequence, the number of possible quasi-classical worlds does not have to\ngrow indefinitely as in the many-world picture.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/9901055",
"authors": [
"C. H. Woo"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph",
"gr-qc",
"hep-th"
],
"title": "Consistent-Histories Description of A World of Increasing Entropy",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9901055"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "8e14616e-079d-4d10-a924-b84a58948fd3",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}