A Brief Historical Perspective on the Consistent Histories Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper provides a historical overview of the development of the consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics, highlighting key contributions and the evolution of the formalism over time.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive historical account of the consistent histories interpretation, emphasizing the roles of Griffiths, Omnès, Gell-Mann, and Hartle, and their cosmological motivations.

Findings

Trace of the formalism development from Griffiths to Gell-Mann and Hartle.

Identification of the role of decoherence in the interpretation.

Historical context of the Santa Fe Institute's influence.

Abstract

It will be presented in this chapter a historical account of the consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics based on primary and secondary literature. Firstly, the formalism of the consistent histories approach will be outlined. Secondly, the works by Robert Griffiths and Roland Omn\`es will be discussed. Griffiths' seminal 1984 paper, the first physicist to have proposed a consistent-histories interpretation of quantum mechanics, followed by Omn\`es' 1990 paper, were instrumental to the consistent-histories model based on Boolean logic. Thirdly, Murray Gell-Mann and James Hartle's steps to their own version of consistent-histories approach, motivated by a cosmological perspective, will then be described and evaluated. Gell-Mann and Hartle understood that spontaneous decoherence could path the way to a concrete physical model to Griffiths' consistent histories. Moreover, the collective biography of these figures will be put in the context of the role played by the Santa Fe Institute, co-founded by Gell-Mann in 1984 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Hartle is also a member of the external faculty.