We discuss the manner in which the gravitational field becomes classical in quantum cosmology. This involves two steps. First, one must show that the quantum state of the gravitational field becomes strongly peaked about a set of classical configurations. Second, one must show that the system is in one of a number of states of a relatively permanent nature that have negligible interference with each other. This second step involves decoherence—destruction of the off-diagonal terms in the density matrix, representing interference. To introduce the notion of decoherence, we discuss it in the context of the quantum theory of measurement, following the environment-induced superselection approach of Zurek. We then go on to discuss the application of these ideas to quantum cosmology. We show, in a simple homogeneous isotropic model, that the density matrix of the Universe will decohere if the long-wavelength modes of an inhomogeneous massless scalar field are traced out. These modes effectively act as an environment which continuously ‘‘monitors’’ the scale factor. The coherence width is very small except in the neighborhood of a classical bounce. This means that one cannot really say that a classical solution bounces because the notion of classical spacetime does not apply. The coherence width decreases as the scale factor increases, which has implications for the arrow of time. We also show, using decoherence arguments, that the WKB component of the wave function of the Universe which represents expanding universes has negligible interference with the collapsing component. This justifies the usual assumption that they may be treated separately.

• Received 27 January 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.39.2912