The Physical Basis of The Direction of Time - Softcover

H. Dieter Zeh

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9783540420811: The Physical Basis of The Direction of Time

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3540420819 ISBN 13: 9783540420811

Publisher: Springer Verlag, 2001

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This book has been thoroughly revised to include important new results. At the same time it retains the features that make it a classic text on irreversibility, and one which clearly distinguishes the latter from those time asymmetries which may be compensated for by other asymmetries. The book investigates irreversible phenomena in classical, quantum and cosmological settings. In particular, this fourth edition contains a revised treatment of radiation damping as well as extended sections on dynamical maps, quantum entanglement and decoherence, arrows of time hidden in various interpretations of quantum theory, and the emergence of time in quantum gravity. Both physicists and philosophers of science who reviewed earlier editions considered this book a magnificent survey, a concise, technically sophisticated, up-to-date discussion of the subject, showing showing fine sensitivity to crucial conceptual subtleties.

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From the Back Cover:

This thoroughly revised 5th edition of Zeh's classic text investigates irreversible phenomena and their foundation in classical, quantum and cosmological settings. It includes new sections on the meaning of probabilities in a cosmological context, irreversible aspects of quantum computers, and various consequences of the expansion of the Universe. Many other sections have been rewritten. In particular, the book contains an analysis of the physical concept of time, a detailed treatment of radiation damping as well as extended sections on quantum entanglement and decoherence, arrows of time hidden in various interpretations of quantum theory, and the emergence of time in quantum gravity. Both physicists and philosophers of science will find in this book a magnificent survey and a concise, technically sophisticated, up-to-date discussion which shows fine sensitivity to crucial conceptual subtleties.

"The discussion is lucid and intuitive without glossing over the important details."

Max Tegmark, MIT

About the Author:

H. Dieter Zeh studied physics in Brunswick and Heidelberg, where he began work on theoretical nuclear physics. After a year of research at the California Institute of Technology, he moved to the University of California in San Diego to work on the synthesis of the heavy elements, before returning to the University of Heidelberg, where he later became professor of theoretical physics. His studies of collective motion in nuclei led him to address the quantum-to-classical transition in general, and in particular the quantum measurement problem, which is in turn related to many aspects of irreversibility (arrows of time). During this work, Zeh recognized and formulated the universal and unavoidable role of uncontrollable quantum entanglement, thus becoming a founder of the area now known as decoherence.

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