Related papers: Why we observe an almost classical spacetime
Self-similar spacetimes are of importance to cosmology and to gravitational collapse problems. We show that self-similarity or the existence of a homothetic Killing vector field for spherically symmetric spacetimes implies the separability…
We suggest commutation relations for a quantum measure. In one version of these relations, the right-hand side takes account of the presence of curvature of space; in the simplest case, this yields the action of general relativity. We…
The degrees of quantum coherence of cosmological perturbations of different spins are computed in the large-scale limit and compared with the standard results holding for a single mode of the electromagnetic field in an optical cavity. The…
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 emphasize that noncommutative (NC) spacetime necessarily implies emergent spacetime if spacetime at microscopic scales should be viewed as NC. In order to understand NC spacetime correctly, we need to deactivate the thought patterns that…
When one takes into account gravitation, the measurement of space and time cannot be carried out with infinite accuracy. When quantum mechanics is reformulated taking into account this lack of accuracy, the resolution of the measurement…
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…
Quantum gravity (or quantum spacetime) is to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics into a single theoretical framework and presented as the most important open puzzle in fundamental physics. The development of a microscopic theory…
We investigate the problem of metric fluctuations in the presence of the vacuum fluctuations of matter fields and critically assess the usual assertion that vacuum energy implies a Planckian cosmological constant. A new stochastic classical…
We discuss the notion of quantum mechanical coherence in its connection with time evolution and stationarity. The transition from coherence to decoherence is examined in terms of an equation for the time dependence of the density matrix. It…
We examine the dependence of quantization on global properties of a classical system. Quantization based on local properties may lead to ambiguities and inconsistency between local and global symmetries of a quantum system. Our quantization…
An attempt is made to go beyond the standard semi-classical approximation for gravity in the Born-Oppenheimer decomposition of the wave-function in minisuperspace. New terms are included which correspond to quantum gravitational…
According to the inflationary scenario of cosmology, all structure in the Universe can be traced back to primordial fluctuations during an accelerated (inflationary) phase of the very early Universe. A conceptual problem arises due to the…
Spacetime geometry is treated as a fluctuating, stochastic quantum system allowing an effective quantum gravity solution to the cosmological constant problem. A Focker-Planck equation for the probability density of spacetime metric…
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…
Understanding the emergence of a tangible 4-dimensional space-time from a quantum theory of gravity promises to be a tremendously difficult task. This article makes the case that this task may not have to be carried. Space-time as we know…
We discuss how a background bath of gravitons can induce decoherence of quantum systems. The mechanism is dephasing, the loss of phase coherence due to quantum geometry fluctuations caused by the gravitons. This effect is illustrated in a…
We consider two interacting systems when one is treated classically while the other system remains quantum. Consistent dynamics of this coupling has been shown to exist, and explored in the context of treating space-time classically. Here,…
Fluctuation terms and higher moments of a quantum state imply corrections to the classical equations of motion that may have implications in early-universe cosmology, for instance in the state-dependent form of effective potentials. In…
The decoherence phenomenon arising from an environmental monitoring of the state of a quantum system, as opposed to monitoring of a preferred observable, is worked out in detail using two equivalent formulations, namely, repeated…