Dawid, Richard and Thebault, Karim P Y (2024) Decoherence and Probability. [Preprint]

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Abstract

One cannot justifiably presuppose the physical salience of structures derived via decoherence theory based upon an entirely uninterpreted use of the quantum formalism. Non-probabilistic accounts of the emergence of probability via decoherence are thus unconvincing. An alternative account of the emergence of probability involves the combination of \textit{quasi-probabilistic emergence}, via a partially interpreted decoherence model, with \textit{semi-classical emergence}, via averaging of observables with respect to a positive-definite \textit{quasi-probability} function and neglect of terms $O(\hbar)$. This approach avoids well-known issues with constructing classical probability measures in the context of the full set of states of a quantum theory. Rather, it considers a generalised \textit{quasi-measure} structure, \textit{partially interpreted} as weighting of possibilities, over a more general algebra, and delimits the context in which the combination of decoherence and a semi-classical averaging allows us to recover a classical probability model as a coarse-grained description which neglects terms $O(\hbar)$.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Dawid, Richard richard.dawid@philosophy.su.se 0000-0002-1472-2958 Thebault, Karim P Y karim.thebault@gmail.com
Keywords:	decoherence; probability; quasi-probability; semi-classical emergence
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Dr Karim Thebault
Date Deposited:	02 Oct 2024 11:59
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2024 11:59
Item ID:	23991
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	2 October 2024
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23991

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