The Quantum Mechanics of Hyperion and the Role of Decoherence in Classical Chaos - Nathan Wiebe

Quantum Mechanics is considered to be a more fundamental theory than classical mechanics, and as such classicality should emerge out of QM in the correct limit. The nature of this limit is still debated especially for chaotic systems. W.H. Zurek suggested that quantum mechanical corrections to Liouvilles equation cannot be ignored for chaotic bodies such as Hyperion (one of Saturns moons), and that decoherence is needed to explain the classical limit. This talk will give a brief overview of quantum and classical chaos as well as the correspondence principle. Numerical estimates of the classical limit of QM will be presented for Hyperion with and without decoherence. Finally it will be shown that contrary to Zurek, decoherence is not required to explain the classicality of Hyperion.