Abstract
Recently, a static gravitational field, such as that of the Earth, was proposed as a new source of decoherence [1]. We study the conditions under which it becomes the dominant decoherence effect in typical interferometric experiments. The following competing sources are considered: spontaneous emission of light, absorption, scattering with the thermal photons and collisions with the residual gas. We quantify all these effects. As we will see, current experiments are off by several orders of magnitude. New ideas are needed in order to achieve the necessary requirements: having as large a system as possible, to increase gravitational decoherence, cool it and isolate well enough to reduce thermal and collisional decoherence, and resolve very small distances.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2354-2358 |
| Journal | Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics |
| Volume | 380 |
| Issue number | 31-32 |
| Early online date | 24 May 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Jul 2016 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors wish to thank I. Pikovski and H. Ulbricht for many interesting and enjoyable discussions. They acknowledge financial support from the University of Trieste (FRA 2013), INFN and the John Templeton Foundation (grant N. 39530 ).
Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank I. Pikovski and H. Ulbricht for many interesting and enjoyable discussions. They acknowledge financial support from the University of Trieste (FRA 2013), INFN and the John Templeton Foundation (grant N. 39530).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Experimental tests of gravitational theories
- Gravitational decoherence
- Open quantum systems
- Quantum foundations
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all)