Decoherence induced by long wavelength gravitons
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2015-03-05 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
Abstract
We discuss how a background bath of gravitons can induce decoherence of quantum systems. The mechanism is dephasing, the loss of phase coherence due to quantum geometry fluctuations caused by the gravitons. This effect is illustrated in a simple analog model of quantum particles in a cavity whose walls undergo position fluctuations, and create the same effect expected from spacetime geometry fluctuations. We obtain an explicit result for the decoherence rate in the limit where the graviton wavelength is large compared to the size of the quantum system, and make some estimates for this rate.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1412.4685,
title = {Decoherence induced by long wavelength gravitons},
author = {V. A. De Lorenci and L. H. Ford},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.4685},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
10 pages, 1 figure, Section II incorporates much of the content of arXiv:1205.2348