Aspects of the Decoherent Histories Approach to Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

I give an informal overview of the decoherent histories approach to quantum mechanics, due to Griffiths, to Omnès, and to Gell-Mann and Hartle is given. Results on the connections between decoherence, records, correlation and entropy are described. The emphasis of the presentation is on understanding the broader meaning of the conditions of consistency and decoherence, and in particular, the extent to which they permit one to assign definite properties to the system. The quantum Brownian motion model is briefly discussed. (To appear in proceedings of the workshop, "Stochastic Evolution of Quantum States in Open Systems and Measurement Processes", Budapest, March, 1993, edited by L.Diosi).