Loss of coherence in multidimensional minisuperspaces

A. Gangui, F. D. Mazzitelli, and M. A. Castagnino
Phys. Rev. D 43, 1853 – Published 15 March 1991
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Abstract

In the semiclassical limit of quantum gravity, solutions to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation involve several WKB components. In order to reach the adequate classical limit these contributions should not interfere. We show here that this is in general the case. We work with a general minisuper-space model with perturbations and we construct the reduced density matrix ρ̃(gA, gA) by tracing out all the nonrelevant modes of the environment. It turns out that not only are the off-diagonal terms of ρ̃(gA, gA) strongly suppressed but the quantum contributions to ρ̃(gA, gA) due to interference between different semiclassical solutions also vanish. As an example we discuss the particular case of the Kantowski-Sachs cosmological model.

  • Received 6 September 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.43.1853

©1991 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

A. Gangui, F. D. Mazzitelli*, and M. A. Castagnino

  • Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio, Casilla de Correo 67, Sucursal 28, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina and Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Pabellón I, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina

  • *Present address: International Centre for Theoretical Physics, P. O. Box 586, 34100 Trieste, Italy.

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Vol. 43, Iss. 6 — 15 March 1991

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