Related papers: Quantum superpositions of Minkowski spacetime
We present a new operational framework for studying ``superpositions of spacetimes'', which are of fundamental interest in the development of a theory of quantum gravity. Our approach capitalizes on nonlocal correlations in curved spacetime…
In pursuit of a full-fledged theory of quantum gravity, operational approaches offer insights into quantum-gravitational effects produced by quantum superposition of different spacetimes not diffeomorphic to one another. Recent work applies…
Quantum gravity is expected to contain descriptions of semiclassical spacetime geometries in quantum superpositions. To date, no framework for modelling such superpositions has been devised. Here, we provide a new phenomenological…
Without a complete theory of quantum gravity, the question of how quantum fields and quantum particles behave in a superposition of spacetimes seems beyond the reach of theoretical and experimental investigations. Here we use an extension…
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…
Particle detector models such as the Unruh-deWitt detector are widely used in relativistic quantum information and field theory to probe the global features of spacetime and quantum fields. These detectors are typically modelled as coupling…
We investigate the phenomenon of entanglement harvesting for a spacetime in quantum superposition, using two Unruh-DeWitt detectors interacting with a quantum scalar field where the spacetime background is modeled as a superposition of two…
In the absence of a fully-fledged theory of quantum gravity, we propose a "bottom-up" framework for exploring quantum-gravitational physics by pairing two of the most fundamental concepts of quantum theory and general relativity, namely…
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…
Although the standard viewpoint in theoretical physics is that the unification of quantum theory and general relativity requires the quantization of gravity and spacetime, there is not consensus about whether spacetime must fundamentally…
It is shown that an ideal measurement of a one-particle wave packet state of a relativistic quantum field in Minkowski spacetime enables superluminal signalling. The result holds for a measurement that takes place over an intervention…
It is shown that, with some reasonable assumptions, the theory of general relativity can be made compatible with quantum mechanics by using the field equations of general relativity to construct a Robertson-Walker metric for a quantum…
Quantum field theory is completely characterized by the field correlations between spacetime points. In turn, some of these can be accessed by locally coupling to the field simple quantum systems, a.k.a. particle detectors. In this work, we…
Using the relativistic concept of time dilation we show that a superposition of gravitational potentials can lead to nonunitary time evolution. For sufficiently weak gravitational potentials one can still define, for all intents 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…
We describe a theory amalgamating quantum theory and general relativity through the identification of a continuous 4-dimensional spacetime arena constructed from the substructures of a generalised multi-dimensional form for proper time. In…
The global topology of spacetime, though invisible to local curvature measurements, leaves signatures on the correlation functions of quantum fields. We study these signatures using an Unruh-DeWitt particle detector operating in…
It is a well known fact that quantum fields on Minkowski spacetime are correlated for each pair of spacetime regions. In Robertson-Walker spacetimes there are spacelike separated regions with disjoint past horizons but the absence of…
What gravitational field is generated by a massive quantum system in a spatial superposition? Despite decades of intensive theoretical and experimental research, we still do not know the answer. On the experimental side, the difficulty lies…
Noncommutative geometry is a mathematical framework that expresses the structure of space-time in terms of operator algebras. By using the tools of quantum mechanics to describe the geometry, noncommutative space-times are expected to give…