Dominique Spehner (Univ. Grenoble)
Decoherence and quantum measurements.
Decoherence is an irreversible dynamical process transforming
certain linear superpositions of wavepackets of a quantum system
into a ``statistical mixture '' of these wavepackets.
It can be explained by invoking the coupling of the system with its
environment as well as a loss of information about the state of this
environment.
We will focus on the important following question: how long does
this disappearance of quantum superpositions takes?
Various models will be investigated heuristically, including a
tripartite system-pointer-bath model illustrating a quantum
measurement.