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Gravitational decoherence: A general nonrelativistic model

L. Asprea ^1,2,*, G. Gasbarri^3,2,†, and A. Bassi^1,2

¹Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Strada Costiera 11, 34151 Trieste, Italy
²Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste Section, Via Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, Highfield Campus, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom

^*lorenzo.asprea@phd.units.it
^†g.gasbarri@uab.cat

Phys. Rev. D 103, 104041 – Published 19 May, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.104041

Abstract

We derive a general quantum master equation for the dynamics of a scalar bosonic particle interacting with a weak, stochastic and classical external gravitational field. The dynamics predicts decoherence in position, momentum and energy. We show how our master equation reproduces the results present in the literature by taking appropriate limits, thus explaining the apparent contradiction in their dynamical description. Our result is relevant in light of the increasing interest in the low energy quantum-gravity regime.

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References (44)

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Gravitational decoherence: A general nonrelativistic model

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Gravitational Decoherence and the Possibility of Its Interferometric Detection

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