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Phys. Rev. D 40, 1053–1063 (1989)

Quantum coherence, wormholes, and the cosmological constant

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W. G. Unruh
Cosmology Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 2A6

Received 4 October 1988; published in the issue dated 15 August 1989

Coleman has argued that if wormhole solutions to the Euclidean action coupled to matter dominate the Euclidean path integral for quantum gravity, they do not lead to a loss of quantum coherence for wave functions in our Universe. Furthermore, they also lead to the prediction that the "ultimate" cosmological constant is zero. I analyze the assumptions that go into this result and argue that the presence of wormhole solutions does lead to a loss of quantum coherence and, furthermore, completely destroys the Euclidean quantum theory by producing a highly nonlocal effective Euclidean action which is violently unbounded from below.

© 1989 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.40.1053
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.40.1053
PACS: