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Irreversibility and Collapse Models

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Re-Thinking Time at the Interface of Physics and Philosophy

Part of the book series: On Thinking ((ONTHINKING,volume 4))

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Abstract

Irreversible phenomena are of fundamental importance because they characterize a direction of time. Irreversibility has been observed in three different physical situations, namely, in thermodynamics (monotonic increase of entropy), quantum theory (measurement process), and cosmology (black holes and their entropy). There is no consensus on how these three kinds of irreversibility are connected, and whether there is any common ground that can explain them consistently, or if one of them is more fundamental than the others. A solution to the above questions is to work with a physical theory that picks a preferred direction of time. Collapse models, as quantum non-linear and stochastic theories, may provide us with such a solution. After discussing the features of collapse models in detail, we review the phenomenological implications of these models, with particular attention to the aforementioned issues.

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Acknowledgements

MB acknowledges partial financial support from National Elite Foundation, Iran, and from the K.N. Toosi University, Tehran, Iran; he also acknowledges the hospitality from The Abdus Salam ICTP, where this work was carried out. AB, LF, and SD acknowledge partial financial support from MIUR (PRIN 2008), INFN, COST (MP1006) and the John Templeton Foundation project ‘Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality.’ GL acknowledges financial support by CONACyT postdoctoral grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Abdus Salam ICTP, Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste, Italy

    Mohammad Bahrami

  2. Science Faculty, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, 1587-4416, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Bahrami

  3. Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste, Italy

    Angelo Bassi, Sandro Donadi, Luca Ferialdi & Gabriel León

  4. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste, Italy

    Angelo Bassi, Sandro Donadi & Luca Ferialdi

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  1. Mohammad Bahrami
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  2. Angelo Bassi
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  3. Sandro Donadi
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  4. Luca Ferialdi
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  5. Gabriel León
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Correspondence to Mohammad Bahrami .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Parmenides Stiftung, Pullach, Bayern, Germany

    Albrecht von Müller

  2. Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Thomas Filk

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Bahrami, M., Bassi, A., Donadi, S., Ferialdi, L., León, G. (2015). Irreversibility and Collapse Models. In: von Müller, A., Filk, T. (eds) Re-Thinking Time at the Interface of Physics and Philosophy. On Thinking, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10446-1_6

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