English

Fundamental decoherence from quantum spacetime

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2023-01-27 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory Quantum Physics

Abstract

We show that quantum properties of spacetime, encoded by noncommutativity at the Planck scale, lead to a generalized time evolution of quantum systems in which pure states can evolve into mixed states. Specifically, a decoherence mechanism is obtained in the form of a Lindblad-like time evolution for the density operator when the action of time translations generator is deformed by the effects of spacetime noncommutativity. The decoherence time for the evolution of a free particle is used to show that the Planck mass is the maximum allowed mass for elementary quantum systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2208.14119,
  title  = {Fundamental decoherence from quantum spacetime},
  author = {Michele Arzano and Vittorio D'Esposito and Giulia Gubitosi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.14119},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

v2 matches the version accepted for publication in Communications Physics

R2 v1 2026-06-25T02:05:01.807Z