Related papers: Gravitation as a source of decoherence
A small quantum system is studied which is a superposition of states localized in different positions in a static gravitational field. The time evolution of the correlation between different positions is investigated, and it is seen that…
Understanding the interplay between quantum mechanical systems and gravity is a crucial step towards unifying these two fundamental ideas. Recent theoretical developments have explored how global properties of spacetime would cause a…
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…
The origin of cosmic structure is widely regarded as quantum, yet the Universe today appears classical. Standard lore attributes this to a "quantum-to-classical" transition on super-horizon scales during inflation. Gravity plays a central…
Decoherence shows how the openness of quantum systems -- interaction with their environment -- suppresses flagrant manifestations of quantumness. Einselection accounts for the emergence of preferred quasi-classical pointer states. Quantum…
We consider a composite particle, whose internal degrees of freedom are described by quantum mechanics, interacting with the quantum gravitational field in the linear approximation. Dechorence induced by the quantum fluctuations of the…
In many theories of quantum gravity quantum fluctuations of spacetime may serve as an environment for decoherence. Here we study quantum-gravitational decoherence of high energy astrophysical neutrinos in the presence of fermionic dark…
Answers to the question how a classical world emerges from underlying quantum physics are revisited, connected and extended as follows. First, three distinct concepts are compared: decoherence in open quantum systems, consistent/decoherent…
We examine from first principles one of the basic assumptions of modern quantum theories of structure formation in the early universe, i.e., the conditions upon which fluctuations of a quantum field may transmute into classical stochastic…
We discuss the decoherence in a quantum system induced by interaction with gravitational degrees of freedom that are part of a higher derivative theory. The deformation of a mass distribution due to gravitational waves acquires naturally a…
What if gravity is classical? If true, a consistent co-existence of classical gravity and quantum matter requires that gravity exhibit irreducible fluctuations. These fluctuations can mediate classical correlations, but not quantum…
The decoherence mechanism signals the limits beyond which the system dynamics approaches the classical behavior. We show that in some cases decoherence may also signal the limits beyond which the system dynamics has to be described by…
We give a pedagogical introduction to the process of decoherence - the irreversible emergence of classical properties through interaction with the environment. After discussing the general concepts, we present the following examples:…
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…
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…
Emergent quantum technologies have led to increasing interest in decoherence - the processes that limit the appearance of quantum effects and turn them into classical phenomena. One important cause of decoherence is the interaction of a…
If we reduce coherence in a given quantum system, the result is an increase in entropy. Does this necessarily convert this quantum system into a classical system? The answer to this question is No. The decrease of coherence means more…
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…
It is univocally anticipated that in a theory of quantum gravity, there exist quantum superpositions of semiclassical states of spacetime geometry. Such states could arise for example, from a source mass in a superposition of spatial…
We argue that, in order to obtain decoherence of spacetime, we should consider quantum conformal metric fluctuations of spacetime. This could be the required environment in the problem of selfmeasurement of spacetime in quantum gravity.