On Sunday, November 18, 2018 at 1:05:26 PM UTC, [email protected] wrote: > > > > On Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 7:39:14 PM UTC, [email protected] > wrote: >> >> If you write a superposition as a sum of eigenstates, why is it >> important, or relevant, or even true that the component states are coherent >> since eigenstates with distinct eigenvalues are orthogonal. This means >> there is no interference between the components of the superposition. AG >> > > Put another way; from what I've read, coherence among components of a > superposition is necessary to guarantee interference, but since an > eigenstate expansion of the superposition consists of orthogonal, non > interfering eigenstates, the requirement of coherence seems unnecessary. AG >
*For decoherence to occur, one needs, presumably, a coherent superposition. But when the wf is expressed as a sum of eigenstates with unique eigenvalues, those eigenstates are mutually orthogonal; hence, IIUC, there is no coherence. So, how can decoherence occur when the state function, expressed as a sum of eigenstates with unique eigenvalues, is not coherent? I must be missing something, but what it is I have no clue. AG * -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
