Related papers: Gravitational Decoherence: A Thematic Overview
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…
The physics of low-energy quantum systems is usually studied without explicit consideration of the background spacetime. Phenomena inherent to quantum theory on curved space-time, such as Hawking radiation, are typically assumed to be only…
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…
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…
An outstanding open issue in our quest for physics beyond Einstein is the unification of general relativity (GR) and quantum physics. Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a leading approach toward this goal. At its heart is the central lesson of…
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:…
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…
Several phenomenological approaches to quantum gravity predict the existence of a minimal measurable length and/or a maximum measurable momentum near the Planck scale. When embedded into the framework of quantum mechanics, such constraints…
For more than 80 years theoretical physicists have been trying to develop a theory of quantum gravity which would successfully combine the tenets of Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) together with those of quantum field theory.…
In general relativity (GR), spacetime geometry is no longer just a background arena but a physical and dynamical entity with its own degrees of freedom. We present an overview of approaches to quantum gravity in which this central feature…
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…
A small quantum system within the gravitational field of a massive body will be entangled with the quantum degrees of freedom of the latter. Hence, the massive body acts as an environment, and it induces non-unitary dynamics, noise, and…
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…
Some of the recent work on quantum gravity has involved modified uncertainty relations such that the products of the uncertainties of certain pairs of observables increase with time. It is here observed that this type of modified…
We investigate decoherence of quantum superpositions induced by gravitational time dilation and spontaneous emission between two atomic levels. It has been shown that gravitational time dilation can be an universal decoherence source. Here,…
A recently introduced discrete formalism allows to solve the problem of time in quantum gravity in a relational manner. Quantum mechanics formulated with a relational time is not exactly unitary and implies a fundamental mechanism for…
We discuss a mechanism of spin decoherence in gravitation within the framework of general relativity. The spin state of a particle moving in a gravitational field is shown to decohere due to the curvature of spacetime. As an example, we…
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 this paper, we study the phenomenon of quantum interference in the presence of external gravitational fields described by alternative theories of gravity. We analyze both non-relativistic and relativistic effects induced by the…
A retrospective analysis of the field theory of gravitation, describing gravitational field in the same way as other fields of matter in the flat space-time, is done. The field approach could be called "quantum gravidynamics" to distinguish…