Quantum Decoherence

Loss of quantum interference as a system entangles with its environment — why cats are never seen half-alive.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Pioneered by H. Dieter Zeh around 1970 and developed by Wojciech Zurek in the 1980s.
• Superpositions leak which-path information into the environment, suppressing interference without any collapse.
• It is the central enemy of quantum computers, fought with cryogenic isolation and error correction.

Specifications & Metrics

• SYMBOL: ψ ⊗ environment