Less Decoherence and More Coherence in Quantum Gravity, Inflationary Cosmology and Elsewhere

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the role of decoherence in resolving foundational issues in quantum gravity and cosmology, arguing that decoherence alone cannot address core interpretational problems in quantum mechanics.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed critique of the claim that decoherence can bypass interpretational issues, emphasizing its limitations in solving foundational quantum questions.

Findings

Decoherence does not resolve the measurement problem.

Decoherence alone cannot explain the emergence of classicality.

Decoherence is insufficient for addressing interpretational issues in quantum mechanics.

Abstract

In Crull (2015) it is argued that, in order to confront outstanding problems in cosmology and quantum gravity, interpretational aspects of quantum theory can by bypassed because decoherence is able to resolve them. As a result, Crull (2015) concludes that our focus on conceptual and interpretational issues, while dealing with such matters in Okon and Sudarsky (2014), is avoidable and even pernicious. Here we will defend our position by showing in detail why decoherence does not help in the resolution of foundational questions in quantum mechanics, such as the measurement problem or the emergence of classicality.