Decoherence: Theoretical, Experimental, and Conceptual Problems

In this book the process of decoherence is reviewed from both the theoretical and the experimental physicist's point of view. Implications of this important concept for fundamental problems of quantum theory and for chemistry and biology are also given. This broad review of decoherence addresses researchers and graduate students. It could also be used in seminar work.

General Introduction.- Elements of Environmental Decoherence.- The Meaning of Decoherence*.- Theoretical Aspects.- Continuous Fuzzy Measurement of Energy: Realization and Application.- Slow Decoherence of Superpositions of Macroscopically Distinct States.- Grey Solitons in Bose-Einstein Condensates as Mesoscopic Particles.- Decoherence Through Coupling to the Radiation Field.- States, Symmetries and Superselection.- Decoherence in Situations Involving the Gravitational Field.- Moving Quantum Agents in a Finite Environment.- Mathematical Aspects of Decoherence.- Decoherence and Continuous Measurements: Phenomenology and Models.- The Problem of Decoherence and the EPR-Paradox.- Asymptotically Disjoint Quantum States.- Experiments.- Dynamical Localization and Decoherence.- Quantum Cryptography and Long Distance Bell Experiments: How to Control Decoherence.- Exploration of the Fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics by Charged Particle Interferometry.- Alternative Approaches.- Single Ions in Paul Traps.- Time-Convolutionless Stochastic Unraveling of Non-Markovian Quantum Master Equations.- Emergence of Classicality: From Collapse Phenomenologies to Hybrid Dynamics.- EEQT - Formalism and Applications.- An Application of EEQT: Tunneling Times.- Conceptual and Epistemoligical Issues.- Non-Markovian Quantum State Diffusion and Open System Dynamics.- Quantum Theory Without Waves: A Way of Eliminating Quantum Mechanical Paradoxes?.- Decoherence as an Irreversible Process.- Many Minds and Single Mind Interpretations of Quantum Theory.- Decoherence and Einselection.