Emergence of classicality for primordial fluctuations: Concepts and analogies

We clarify the way in which cosmological perturbations of quantum origin, produced during inflation, assume classical properties. Two features play an important role in this process: First, the dynamics of fluctuations which are presently on large cosmological scales leads to a very peculiar state (highly squeezed) that is indistinguishable, in a precise sense, from a classical stochastic process. This holds for almost all initial quantum states. Second, the process of decoherence by interaction with the environment distinguishes the field amplitude basis as the robust pointer basis. We discuss in detail the interplay between these features and use simple analogies such as the free quantum particle to illustrate the main conceptual issues.     

Calculation of the Knight shift in palladium

The direct and the exchange core polarization (ECP) contributions of the conduction electrons to the Knight shift of palladium are evaluated. To obtain the wave functions for the conduction electrons and the partial densities of states at the Fermi surface a KKR energy band calculation was performed. The contributions of the core electrons to the Knight shift were determined by using the moment perturbation method (MP). Electron-electron interactions are taken into account by individual enhancement factors for thed ands electrons. The agreement between the theoretical results and the available experimental data is quite satisfactory.