Introduction

Abstract

Before starting a detailed exposition of the material we shall give in this chapter a sort of general survey of the book’s content.¹ After sketching in Sect. 1.1 the plan of the book we shall then comment on some theoretical points which will be a subject of discussion in the book. First we shall give some idea of where the interrelated concepts of decoherence and quantum measurement appear and why they are important (Sect. 1.2). Then (Sect. 1.3) we shall briefly comment on the main aspects of the concepts to be considered: what is quantum measurement (decoherence); how fuzzy measurements may be described (in contrast to more familiar sharp measurements); and how continuous fuzzy quantum measurements may be represented, leading, in fact, to a simple model of gradual decoherence. At the end (Sect. 1.4) we shall concern ourselves with the most intriguing and most general view of decoherence as the appearance of classic features of the quantum world.