Critical review of prevailing explanations for the emergence of classicality in cosmology

TL;DR

This paper critically examines recent attempts to explain the emergence of classicality in cosmology within the standard framework, arguing that these efforts lack clarity and rely on unjustified assumptions, leaving the phenomenon unexplained.

Contribution

It provides a critique of existing explanations for classical emergence in cosmology, highlighting conceptual issues and the reliance on circular reasoning.

Findings

Most explanations rely on unjustified assumptions

Current approaches lack conceptual clarity

The emergence of classicality remains unexplained within the standard framework

Abstract

There have been recent attempts at justifying, from first principles, and within the standard framework, the emergence of classical behavior in the post-inflationary cosmological context. Accounting for this emergence is an important issue, as it underlies the extraordinary empirical success of our current understanding of cosmology. In this work, we offer a critique of different efforts at explaining the emergence of classical behavior in cosmology within the standard framework. We argue that such endeavors are generically found lacking in conceptual clarity, as they invariably rely, either upon unjustified, implicit assumptions, or on circular logic. We conclude that, within the standard approach, the emergence of classical behavior in cosmology constitutes an unexplained phenomenon.