Related papers: Understanding nature from experimental observation…
We discuss effects of loss of coherence in low energy quantum systems caused by or related to gravitation, referred to as gravitational decoherence. These effects, resulting from random metric fluctuations, for instance, promise to be…
Despite the fact that we have some proposals for the quantum theory of gravity like string theory or loop quantum gravity, we do not have any experimental evidence supporting any of these theories. Actually, we do not have experimental…
The detection of gravitational waves in 2015 ushered in a new era of gravitational wave astronomy capable of probing into the strong field dynamics of black holes and neutron stars. It has opened up an exciting new window for laboratory and…
Real world quantum systems are open to perpetual influence from the wider environment. Quantum gravitational fluctuations provide a most fundamental source of the environmental influence through their universal interactions with all forms…
It is believed that classical behavior emerges in a quantum system due to decoherence. It has also been proposed that gravity can be a source of this decoherence. We examine this in detail by studying a number of quantum systems, including…
Gravitational decoherence (GD) refers to the effects of gravity in actuating the classical appearance of a quantum system. Because the underlying processes involve issues in general relativity (GR), quantum field theory (QFT) and quantum…
One of the outstanding questions in modern physics is how to test whether gravity is classical or quantum in a laboratory. Recently there has been a proposal to test the quantum nature of gravity by creating quantum superpositions of two…
We give a first principles derivation of a master equation for the evolution of a quantum matter field in a linearly perturbed Minkowski spacetime, based solely on quantum field theory and general relativity. We make no additional…
We present a discussion of the fundamental loss of unitarity that appears in quantum mechanics due to the use of a physical apparatus to measure time. This induces a decoherence effect that is independent of any interaction with the…
Among the many worthwhile quantum experiments taking advantage of long baselines in space, this white paper points to the far-reaching significance of gravitational decoherence experiments. These experiments can provide clues as to whether…
We propose a thought experiment, based on a mechanism that is reminiscent of Cavendish's torsion balance, to investigate the possible quantum nature of the gravitational field generated by the quantum superposition state of a massive…
Quantum states of gravitational source masses can lead to experimental outcomes that are inconsistent with the predictions of a purely classical field theory of gravity. Environmental decoherence places strict boundary conditions to the…
The quantum nature of gravity remains an open question in fundamental physics, lacking experimental verification. Gravitational waves (GWs) provide a potential avenue for detecting gravitons, the hypothetical quantum carriers of gravity.…
When one takes into account gravitation, the measurement of space and time cannot be carried out with infinite accuracy. When quantum mechanics is reformulated taking into account this lack of accuracy, the resolution of the measurement…
An increasing number of papers have appeared in recent years on decoherence in quantum gravity at the Planck energy. We discuss the meaning of decoherence in quantum gravity starting from the common notion that quantum gravity is a theory…
Quantum mechanical interference of wave functions leads to some difficulties if a probability density is considered as a source of gravity. We show that an introduction of a quantum energy-momentum tensor as a source term in Einstein…
We study quantum noise and decoherence induced by gravitons. We derive a Langevin equation of geodesic deviation in the presence of gravitons. The amplitude of noise correlations tells us that large squeezing is necessary to detect the…
We argue that semiclassical gravity can be made consistent if quantum systems source gravity only when they participate in non-gravitational interactions that lead to environment-induced decoherence. Outside such decoherence-based events,…
Quantum decoherence can arise due to classical fluctuations in the parameters which define the dynamics of the system. In this case decoherence, and complementary noise, is manifest when data from repeated measurement trials are combined.…
We consider two interacting systems when one is treated classically while the other system remains quantum. Consistent dynamics of this coupling has been shown to exist, and explored in the context of treating space-time classically. Here,…