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Accepted manuscript

Decoherence and Probability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2025

Richard Dawid
Affiliation:
Stockholm University, Sweden
Karim P. Y. Thébault*
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, UK
*
*Corresponding author: karim.thebault@bristol.ac.uk
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Abstract

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One cannot justifiably presuppose the physical salience of structures derived via decoherence theory based upon an entirely uninterpreted use of the quantum formalism. Non-probabilistic accounts of the emergence of probability via decoherence are unconvincing. An alternative account of the emergence of probability involves the combination of a partially interpreted decoherence model and an averaging of observables with respect to a positive-definite quasiprobability function and neglect of terms of . Our analysis delimits the context in which the combination of decoherence and a semi-classical averaging allows us to recover a classical probability model within an emergent coarse-grained description.

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Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Philosophy of Science Association