Minisuperspace as a Quantum Open System

We trace the development of ideas on dissipative processes in chaotic cosmology and on minisuperspace quantum cosmology from the time Misner proposed them to current research. We show 1) how the effect of quantum processes like particle creation in the early universe can address the issues of the isotropy and homogeneity of the observed universe, 2) how viewing minisuperspace as a quantum open system can address the issue of the validity of such approximations customarily adopted in quantum cosmology, and 3) how invoking statistical processes like decoherence and correlation when considered together can help to establish a theory of quantum fields in curved spacetime as the semiclassical limit of quantum gravity