Adaptive Coarse Graining, Environment, Strong Decoherence, and Quasiclassical Realms

Abstract: Three ideas are introduced that when brought together characterize the realistic quasiclassical realms of our quantum universe as particular kinds of sets of alternative coarse-grained histories defined by quasiclassical variables: (1) Branch dependent adaptive coarse grainings that can be close to maximally refined and can simplify calculation. (2) Narrative coarse grainings that describe how features of the universe change over time and allow the construction of an environment. (3) A notion of strong decoherence that characterizes realistic mechanisms of decoherence.