Testing spontaneous collapse through bulk heating experiments: estimate of the background noise
Abstract
Models of spontaneous wave function collapse predict a small heating rate for a bulk solid, as a result of coupling to the noise field that causes collapse. This rate is small enough that ambient radioactivity and cosmic ray flux on the surface of the earth can mask the heating due to spontaneous collapse. In this paper we estimate the background noise due to gamma-radiation and cosmic ray muon flux, at different depths. We demonstrate that a low-temperature underground experiment at a depth of about 6.5 km.w.e. would have a low enough background to allow detection of bulk heating for a collapse rate of s using presently available technology.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1807.03067,
title = {Testing spontaneous collapse through bulk heating experiments: estimate of the background noise},
author = {Ruchira Mishra and Andrea Vinante and Tejinder P. Singh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.03067},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
v3: 11 pages, 9 figures, parts of the paper rewritten, no change in results, to appear in Phys. Rev. A