Universal decoherence due to gravitational time dilation
- Author(s)
- Igor Pikovski, Magdalena Zych, Fabio Costa, Caslav Brukner
- Abstract
The physics of low-energy quantum systems is usually studied without explicit consideration of the background spacetime. Phenomena inherent to quantum theory in curved spacetime, such as Hawking radiation, are typically assumed to be relevant only for extreme physical conditions: at high energies and in strong gravitational fields. Here we consider low-energy quantum mechanics in the presence of gravitational time dilation and show that the latter leads to the decoherence of quantum superpositions. Time dilation induces a universal coupling between the internal degrees of freedom and the centre of mass of a composite particle. The resulting correlations lead to decoherence in the particle position, even without any external environment. We also show that the weak time dilation on Earth is already sufficient to affect micrometre-scale objects. Gravity can therefore account for the emergence of classicality and this effect could in principle be tested in future matter-wave experiments.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), Harvard University, University of Queensland
- Journal
- Nature Physics
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 668–672
- No. of pages
- 5
- ISSN
- 1745-2473
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3366
- Publication date
- 08-2015
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103025 Quantum mechanics
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/986ccb45-390e-4a99-8062-ee5441a0ff56