1 - Introduction

Summary

Chapter 1 begins by re-examining the textbook quantum postulates. It concludes with the realization that some of them are inconsistent with quantum mathematics, but also that they may not have to be postulated. Indeed, in the following two chapters it is shown that their consequences follow from the other, consistent postulates. This simplification of the quantum foundations provides a consistent, convenient, and solid starting point. The emergence of the classical from the quantum substrate is based on this foundation of “core quantum postulates”—the “quantum credo”. Discussion of the postulates is accompanied by a brief summary of their implications for the interpretation of quantum theory. This discussion touches on questions of interpretation that are implicit throughout the book, but will be addressed more fully in Chapter 9. Chapter 1 ends with a “decoherence primer” that provides a quick introduction to decoherence (discussed in detail in Part II). Its aim is to provide the reader with an overview of the process that will play an important role throughout the book, and to motivate Chapters 2 and 3 that lay the foundations for the physics of decoherence (Part II) as well as for quantum Darwinism, the subject of Chapters 7 and 8.