IRREVERSIBILITY IN QUANTUM MECHANICS

Time asymmetry and irreversibility are signal features of our world. They are the reason of our aging and the basis for our belief that effects are preceded by causes. These features have many manifestations called arrows of time. In classical physics, some of these arrows are described by the increase of entropy or probability, and others by time-asymmetric boundary conditions of time-symmetric equations (e.g., Maxwell or Einstein). However, there is some controversy over whether probability or boundary conditions are more fun-damental. For quantum systems, entropy increase is usually associated with the effects of an environment or measurement apparatus on a quantum system and is described by the von Neumann-Liouville equation. But since the traditional (von Neumann) axioms of quantummechanics do not allow time-asymmetric boundary conditions for the dynam-ical differential equations (Schrödinger or Heisenberg), there is no quantum analogue of the radiation arrow of time. In this paper, we review consequences of a modification of a fundamental axiom of quantummechanics. The new quantum theory is time asymmetric and accommodates an irreversible time evolution of isolated quantum systems. 1