The Meaning of Decoherence
arXiv:quant-ph/9905004
Abstract
The conceptual and dynamical aspects of decoherence are analyzed, while their consequences are discussed for several fundamental applications. This mechanism, which is based on a universal Schrödinger equation, is furthermore compared with the phenomenological description of open systems in terms of `quantum dynamical maps'.
25 pages, Latex, needs Springer macro cl2emult. Version to be published. An error in the comments regarding the relation between Bloch vectors and Wigner functions has been eliminated (see Footnote 3)