Properties of Consistent Histories

TL;DR

This paper examines the properties of consistent histories in the Gell-Mann--Hartle formalism and shows that consistency alone cannot reproduce standard quasiclassical physics predictions.

Contribution

It highlights limitations of the consistency criterion in recovering classical physics within the consistent histories framework.

Findings

Consistency criterion alone is insufficient for classical predictions

Illustrates the gap between formalism and classical physics

Provides an example demonstrating the limitations

Abstract

We describe some properties of consistent sets of histories in the Gell-Mann--Hartle formalism, and give an example to illustrate that one cannot recover the standard predictions, retrodictions and inferences of quasiclassical physics using the criterion of consistency alone.