Related papers: Semi-quantum Gravity and Testing Gravitational Bel…
Experiments are beginning to probe the interaction of quantum particles with gravitational fields beyond the uniform-field regime. In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, the gravitational field in such experiments can be written as a…
Quantum fields do not satisfy the pointwise energy conditions that are assumed in the original singularity theorems of Penrose and Hawking. Accordingly, semiclassical quantum gravity lies outside their scope. Although a number of…
Experiments have recently been proposed testing whether quantum gravitational interactions generate entanglement between adjacent masses in position superposition states. We propose potentially less challenging experiments that test quantum…
Stochastic semiclassical gravity is a theory for the interaction of gravity with quantum matter fields which goes beyond the semiclassical limit. The theory predicts stochastic fluctuations of the classical gravitational field induced by…
We re-examine the semiclassical approximation to quantum gravity in the canonical formulation, focusing on the definition of a quasiclassical state for the gravitational field. It is shown that a state with classical correlations must be a…
The semiclassical interaction of the gravitational with a quantum scalar field is considered, in view of the renormalizability of the associated energy-momentum tensor in a n-dimensional curved spacetime resulting from a quadratic…
Quantum gravity remains an elusive theory, in spite of our thorough understanding of the quantum theory and the general theory of relativity separately, presumably due to the lack of any observational clues. We argue that the theory of…
A quantitative test for the validity of the semi-classical approximation in gravity is given. The criterion proposed is that solutions to the semi-classical Einstein equations should be stable to linearized perturbations, in the sense that…
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,…
Semi-classical gravity is an approximation to quantum gravity where gravity is treated classically and matter quantum mechanically. Matter is described by quantum field theory on curved space-time, whereas gravity is described by a…
Although general relativity is a predictively successful theory, it treats matter as classical rather than as quantum. For this reason, it will have to be replaced by a more fundamental quantum theory of gravity. Attempts to formulate a…
The semiclassical gravity describes gravitational back-reactions of the classical spacetime interacting with quantum matter fields but the quantum effects on the background is formally defined as higher derivative curvatures. These induce…
Witnessing non-classicality in the gravitational field has been claimed to be practically impossible. This constitutes a deep problem, which has even lead some researchers to question whether gravity should be quantised, due to the weakness…
We consider the possibility that the goal of quantizing General Relativity should be abandoned in favor of Semiclassical Gravity. A formalism is provided for doing so. The quantum measurement problem is investigated in this context.…
The task of testing whether quantum theory applies to all physical systems and all scales requires considering situations where a quantum probe interacts with another system that need not obey quantum theory in full. Important examples…
I review the arguments most often raised against a fundamental coupling of classical spacetime to quantum matter. I show that an experiment by Page and Geilker does not exclude such a semiclassical theory but mandates an inclusion of an…
We discuss the limits of validity of the semiclassical theory of gravity in which a classical metric is coupled to the expectation value of the stress tensor. It is argued that this theory is a good approximation only when the fluctuations…
Semiclassical gravity, in which a classical spacetime is sourced by the quantum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor, is a standard framework for describing the gravitational interaction of quantum matter. In the nonrelativistic…
The incompatibility between GR and QM is generally seen as a sufficient motivation for the development of a theory of Quantum Gravity. If - so a typical argumentation - QM gives a universally valid basis for the description of all natural…
The effort to discover a quantum theory of gravity is motivated by the need to reconcile the incompatibility between quantum theory and general relativity. Here, we present an alternative approach by constructing a consistent theory of…