A classical channel model for gravitational decoherence

Abstract

We show that, by treating the gravitational interaction between two mechanical resonators as a classical measurement channel, a gravitational decoherence model results that is equivalent to a model first proposed by Diosi. The resulting decoherence model implies that the classically mediated gravitational interaction between two gravitationally coupled resonators cannot create entanglement. The gravitational decoherence rate (and the complementary heating rate) is of the order of the gravitationally induced normal mode splitting of the two resonators. Failure to see this in an experiment would rule out treating gravitational interactions as purely classical.

Measurable signatures of quantum mechanics in a classical spacetime

“…A related proposal is the continuous spontaneous localization model, which postulates that a different mass-density sourced field is being continuously monitored [7]. In both cases, gravity could be considered as having a "classical component," in the sense that transferring quantum information through gravity could be impeded, or even forbidden [8]. Another option, proposed by Stamp, adds gravitational correlations between quantum trajectories [9].…”

Nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulation: An approach based on quantum measurement picture

“…The MQC-MD problem falls also into the categories of theories for hybrid-quantum-classical systems. [23][24][25] In existing studies, how the stochastic "surface hopping" is caused in the closed MD systems remains unclear and was not pointed out, while efforts were mainly focused on designing/improving the various hopping algorithms and deriving the (average) decoherence rates. In Ref.…”

Displacemon Electromechanics: How to Detect Quantum Interference in a Nanomechanical Resonator

“…TABLE I. Parameters for a selection of implemented or proposed qubit-resonator coupled systems for carrying out the experiment in the main text. The systems are as follows: (1) this proposed device, (2) proposed levitated NV center in a magnetic field gradient, (3) implemented magnetic cantilever coupled to a NV center, (4) proposed optimization of the device in (3), (5) implemented NV center strain-coupled to diamond cantilever, (6) proposed combination of the Al beam from Ref. [75] with the qubit of Ref.…”

“…Remarkably, interference can be measured using molecules of mass exceeding 10 4 atomic mass units (amu) [1,2]. The ability to create unambiguous superpositions on a mesoscopic scale would allow tests of quantum collapse theories and gravitational decoherence [3][4][5][6][7], ultimately addressing experimentally the question of why we fail to see superpositions in everyday life [8]. This has inspired numerous challenging proposals to detect interference of larger particles [9][10][11] via optomechanical coupling [12], or by using levitated nanodiamonds [13,14].…”