Related papers: Gravity and decoherence: the double slit experimen…
The two-photon ghost interference experiment, generalized to the case of massive particles, is theoretically analyzed. It is argued that the experiment is intimately connected to a double-slit interference experiment where, the which-path…
Recently, several proposals have been made to test the quantum superposition principle in the mesoscopic regime. Most of these tests consist of a careful measurement of the loss of interference due to decoherence. Here we consider, instead,…
We present a simple calculation leading to the quantum gravitationally-induced decoherence of a spatial superposition of a massive object in the linear coupling regime. The point of this calculation is to illustrate that the…
Quantum mechanics and gravitation are two pillars of modern physics. Despite their success in describing the physical world around us, they seem to be incompatible theories. There are suggestions that one of these theories must be…
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…
We discuss the interplay of wave packet decoherence and decoherence induced by quantum gravity via interactions with spacetime foam for high energy astrophysical neutrinos. In this context we point out a compelling consequence of the…
We emphasize that a specific aspect of quantum gravity is the absence of a super-selection rule that prevents a linear superposition of different gravitational charges. As an immediate consequence, we obtain a tiny, but observable,…
The fact that gravitational environments cannot be shielded (since gravity is universal) makes them of great theoretical interest to decoherence mechanisms and to the quantum-to-classical transition. While past results seemed to indicate…
In spite of the interference manifested in the double-slit experiment, quantum theory predicts that a measure of interference defined by Sorkin and involving various outcome probabilities from an experiment with three slits, is identically…
We investigate the meaning of gravity-induced decoherence in quantum theory, known as `intrinsic' or `fundamental' decoherence in the literature. We explore a range of issues relevant to this problem, including the meaning of modified…
Entanglement generation by Newtonian gravitational potential between objects has been widely discussed to reveal the quantum nature of gravity. In this paper, we perform a quantum field theoretical analysis of a slightly modified version of…
The interaction between particles and the electromagnetic field induces decoherence generating a small suppression of fringes in an interference experiment. We show that if a double slit--like experiment is performed in the vicinity of a…
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…
A defining signature of classical systems is "in principle measurability" without disturbance: a feature manifestly violated by quantum systems. We describe a multi-interferometer experimental setup that can, in principle, reveal the…
Quantum interference lies at the heart of several quantum computational speed-ups and provides a striking example of a phenomenon with no classical counterpart. An intriguing feature of quantum interference arises in a three slit…
A classical explanation of interference effects in the double slit experiment is proposed. We claim that for every single "particle" a thermal context can be defined, which reflects its embedding within boundary conditions as given by the…
We analyse a gedankenexperiment previously considered by Mari et al. that involves quantum superpositions of charged and/or massive bodies ("particles") under the control of the observers, Alice and Bob. In the electromagnetic case, we show…
A key open problem in physics is the correct way to combine gravity (described by general relativity) with everything else (described by quantum mechanics). This problem suggests that general relativity and possibly also quantum mechanics…
The double slit experiment (DSE) is known as an important cornerstone in the foundations of physical theories such as Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity. A large number of different variants of it were designed and performed over the…
The Diosi-Penrose model of quantum-classical boundary postulates gravity-related spontaneous wave function collapse of massive degrees of freedom. The decoherence effects of the collapses are in principle detectable if not masked by the…