Compatibility between environment-induced decoherence and the modal-hamiltonian interpretation of quantum mechanics

摘要

Given the impressive success of environment-induced decoherence (EID), nowadays no interpretation of quantum mechanics can ignore its results. The modal-Hamiltonian interpretation (MHI) has proved to be effective for solving several interpretative problems, but since its actualization rule applies to closed systems, it seems to stand at odds with EID. The purpose of this article is to show that this is not the case: the states einselected by the interaction with the environment according to EID (the elements of the "pointer basis") are the eigenvectors of an actual-valued observable belonging to the preferred context selected by the MHI.