[PhilPhys] Lisbon Philosophy of Physics Seminars: Davide Romano (April 26 on Zoom)

[Andrea Oldofredi]

Dear List Members,

On Wednesday April 26 Davide Romano (University of Lisbon) will give a talk
at the Lisbon Philosophy of Physics Seminars titled "*What we can do and
cannot do with decoherence*" (abstract below).

These events are organized in the context of the activities of the LanCog
Research Group <https://cful.letras.ulisboa.pt/lancog/> at the Centre of
Philosophy of the University of Lisbon, and they will focus on the
foundations of quantum and spacetime physics.

The meeting will be held on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have not
registered yet, you can do so here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pe9-CUZwKFA_uS0j-wD7bRQatIO-SdzxBqKlmkM6XOY/edit?usp=drive_web>
.

You can address any question to Andrea Oldofredi (
aoldofredi at letras.ulisboa.pt).

ABSTRACT:
Decoherence theory has been used in the philosophical literature more as a
magic wand than a purely mathematical instrument: it can create parallel
worlds from the wave function, fix the measurement problem, make
well-localized classical objects emerge from the equivalent basis
representation of quantum mechanics. In this talk, I analyze what we can do
and cannot do with environmental decoherence, finding out that
decoherence’s magic power has some limits after all. I present, in
particular, three of them: (1) the representation of the state; (ii) the
description of classical trajectories; (iii) the selection of the position
basis. The analysis does not want to provide a critique to decoherence
theory, but just to locate this theory in a more down-to-earth position.
The talk is based on the article: *The unreasonable effectiveness of
decoherence*, published in the volume edited
by V. Allori: *Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality*, Synthese Library,
Springer, 2022.

Best regards,

Andrea Oldofredi
----------

Dr. Andrea Oldofredi

Postdoc FCT

Internet Resources:
https://unil.academia.edu/AndreaOldofredi
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea_Oldofredi

Mailing Address:
University of Lisbon
Centre of Philosophy
Alameda da Universidade, 1600-214, Lisbon
Portugal
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