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Rahul Jain
Jul26-04, 04:41 AM
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>\n\n"Urs Schreiber" &lt;Urs.Schreiber@uni-essen.de&gt; writes:\n\n&gt; "John Baez" &lt;baez@galaxy.ucr.edu&gt; schrieb im Newsbeitrag\n&gt; news:ce0bmc\\$nar\\$1@glue.ucr.edu...\n\n&gt;&gt; There were very few details beyond this, except for a sketch of a\n&gt;&gt; calculation using the ADS/CFT correspondence, which really went\n&gt;&gt; no further than the standard claim that via this correspondence\n&gt;&gt; time evolution must be unitary.\n&gt;\n&gt; Yes. But what\'s puzzling here is that AdS/CFT says that the time evolution\n&gt; of supergravity plus superstring fluctuations must be unitary. Does this\n&gt; imply that pure (super)gravity without the stringy degrees of freedom is\n&gt; unitary by itself?\n\nOK, you (Urs) have already commented (negatively) on my use of\ndecoherence to doubt the validity of Hawking\'s insistence that\nsituations where the black hole did not form somehow contribute to the\nresulting state after a black hole evaporates.\n\nHowever, I don\'t see how unitarity can be assumed if we think that there\nis decoherence. Isn\'t decoherence a non-unitary process? Mixed states\ndecohere to pure(r) states. The states where the black hole did not form\nare removed from the superposition and we must stop contributing the\nforward propagation of the no-black-hole states to the wavefunction of\nthe system. Maybe your definition of "decoherence" is different, but I\nhope it\'s now clear what I mean.\n\nIt\'s possible that this same process that casts doubt on Hawking\'s\nargument is the same one that supports his end result. The standard\n"teleportation" experiment could be occurring with particles that become\nentangled at the event horizon. Of course, this would depend on the\nexact limits of entanglement, as the system could be required to\ndecohere before a particle gets the chance to become entangled at the\nevent horizon. In fact, I got this idea from Hawking\'s mention that\nHawking radiation could be interpreted as tunneling of particles through\nthe event horizon. But I\'m sure most of you will shoot that one down as\nbeing at odds with the geometrical interpretation of GR.\n\nIn any case, shoot away. :)\n\n--\nRahul Jain\nrjain@nyct.net\nProfessional Software Developer, Amateur Quantum Mechanicist\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>"Urs Schreiber" <Urs.Schreiber@uni-essen.de> writes:

> "John Baez" <baez@galaxy.ucr.edu> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:ce0bmc$nar$1@glue.ucr.edu...

>> There were very few details beyond this, except for a sketch of a
>> calculation using the ADS/CFT correspondence, which really went
>> no further than the standard claim that via this correspondence
>> time evolution must be unitary.
>
> Yes. But what's puzzling here is that AdS/CFT says that the time evolution
> of supergravity plus superstring fluctuations must be unitary. Does this
> imply that pure (super)gravity without the stringy degrees of freedom is
> unitary by itself?

OK, you (Urs) have already commented (negatively) on my use of
decoherence to doubt the validity of Hawking's insistence that
situations where the black hole did not form somehow contribute to the
resulting state after a black hole evaporates.

However, I don't see how unitarity can be assumed if we think that there
is decoherence. Isn't decoherence a non-unitary process? Mixed states
decohere to pure(r) states. The states where the black hole did not form
are removed from the superposition and we must stop contributing the
forward propagation of the no-black-hole states to the wavefunction of
the system. Maybe your definition of "decoherence" is different, but I
hope it's now clear what I mean.

It's possible that this same process that casts doubt on Hawking's
argument is the same one that supports his end result. The standard
"teleportation" experiment could be occurring with particles that become
entangled at the event horizon. Of course, this would depend on the
exact limits of entanglement, as the system could be required to
decohere before a particle gets the chance to become entangled at the
event horizon. In fact, I got this idea from Hawking's mention that
Hawking radiation could be interpreted as tunneling of particles through
the event horizon. But I'm sure most of you will shoot that one down as
being at odds with the geometrical interpretation of GR.

In any case, shoot away. :)

--
Rahul Jain
rjain@nyct.net
Professional Software Developer, Amateur Quantum Mechanicist

Urs Schreiber
Jul26-04, 04:52 AM
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>"Rahul Jain" &lt;rjain@nyct.net&gt; schrieb im Newsbeitrag\nnews:873c3fsbw6.fsf_-_@nyct.net...\n\n&gt; OK, you (Urs) have already commented (negatively) on my use of\n&gt; decoherence to doubt the validity of Hawking\'s insistence that\n\nYes, that was in\nhttp://golem.ph.utexas.edu/string/archives/000403.html#c001387\nand in case I wasn\'t clear enough there, I\'ll repeat the explanation:\n\n&gt; However, I don\'t see how unitarity can be assumed if we think that there\n&gt; is decoherence. Isn\'t decoherence a non-unitary process?\n\nNot in a sense that would be relvant here.\n\nDecoherence is something that happens to a subsystem of a total system when\nits dynamics is computed while averaging over the degrees of freedom in the\nenvironment of the susystem. This averaging leads to a "loss of retained\ninformation" (instead of working with the full information one only retains\nsome average information, in a sense) and the resulting effective dynamics\nof the subsystem appears to be no longer unitary - simply because one\ndecided to ignore some information.\n\nHowever, the full exact dynamics of the total system is unitary, and that\'s\nwhat counts and what we are interested in when wondering about whether black\nholes introduce non-unitarity into quantum gravity.\n\nDecoherence might play a role for understanding observables in quantum\ngravity. But it does not make a global unitary dynamics non-unitary and\nwould not explain any non-unitarity of the total system.\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>"Rahul Jain" <rjain@nyct.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:873c3fsbw6.fsf_-_@nyct.net...

> OK, you (Urs) have already commented (negatively) on my use of
> decoherence to doubt the validity of Hawking's insistence that

Yes, that was in
http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/string/archives/000403.html#c001387
and in case I wasn't clear enough there, I'll repeat the explanation:

> However, I don't see how unitarity can be assumed if we think that there
> is decoherence. Isn't decoherence a non-unitary process?

Not in a sense that would be relvant here.

Decoherence is something that happens to a subsystem of a total system when
its dynamics is computed while averaging over the degrees of freedom in the
environment of the susystem. This averaging leads to a "loss of retained
information" (instead of working with the full information one only retains
some average information, in a sense) and the resulting effective dynamics
of the subsystem appears to be no longer unitary - simply because one
decided to ignore some information.

However, the full exact dynamics of the total system is unitary, and that's
what counts and what we are interested in when wondering about whether black
holes introduce non-unitarity into quantum gravity.

Decoherence might play a role for understanding observables in quantum
gravity. But it does not make a global unitary dynamics non-unitary and
would not explain any non-unitarity of the total system.

Arnold Neumaier
Jul28-04, 11:11 AM
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>\n\n\nRahul Jain wrote:\n\n&gt; However, I don\'t see how unitarity can be assumed if we think that there\n&gt; is decoherence. Isn\'t decoherence a non-unitary process? Mixed states\n&gt; decohere to pure(r) states.\n\n\nNo. Pure states evolve into pure states; when viewed in terms of the\nreduced states (without the decohering enmvironment), pure states\nevolve into mixed states which after a while ar approximately diagonal\nin a preferred basis. But they stay mixed. Nothing in decoherence\nturns a mixed state into a pure state; this happens only in a real\nmeasurement, involving the collapse - which is not explained by\ndecoherence.\n\n\nArnold Neumaier\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>Rahul Jain wrote:

> However, I don't see how unitarity can be assumed if we think that there
> is decoherence. Isn't decoherence a non-unitary process? Mixed states
> decohere to pure(r) states.


No. Pure states evolve into pure states; when viewed in terms of the
reduced states (without the decohering enmvironment), pure states
evolve into mixed states which after a while ar approximately diagonal
in a preferred basis. But they stay mixed. Nothing in decoherence
turns a mixed state into a pure state; this happens only in a real
measurement, involving the collapse - which is not explained by
decoherence.


Arnold Neumaier