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arXiv:0806.2541

Quantum decoherence and gravitational waves

Marc-Thierry Jaekel, Brahim Lamine, Astrid Lambrecht, Serge Reynaud, Paulo A. Maia Neto

Published Jun 16, 2008• 0 citations
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Abstract

The quite different behaviors exhibited by microscopic and macroscopic systems with respect to quantum interferences suggest the existence of a borderline beyond which quantum systems loose their coherences and can be described classically. Gravitational waves, generated within our galaxy or during the cosmic expansion, constitute a universal environment susceptible to lead to such a quantum decoherence mechanism. We assess this idea by studying the quantum decoherence due to gravitational waves on typical microscopic and macoscopic systems, namely an atom interferometer (HYPER) and the Earth-Moon system. We show that quantum interferences remain unaffected in the former case and that they disappear extremely rapidly in the latter case. We obtain the relevant parameters which, besides the ratio of the system's mass to Planck mass, characterize the loss of quantum coherences.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.0806.2541

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The quite different behaviors exhibited by microscopic and macroscopic systems with respect to quantum interferences suggest the existence of a borderline beyond which quantum systems loose their coherences and can be described classically. Gravitational waves, generated within our galaxy or during the cosmic expansion, constitute a universal environment susceptible to lead to such a quantum decoherence mechanism. We assess this idea by studying the quantum decoherence due to gravitational waves on typical microscopic and macoscopic systems, namely an atom interferometer (HYPER) and the Earth-Moon system. We show that quantum interferences remain unaffected in the former case and that they disappear extremely rapidly in the latter case. We obtain the relevant parameters which, besides the ratio of the system's mass to Planck mass, characterize the loss of quantum coherences.
The quite different behaviors exhibited by microscopic and macroscopic systems with respect to quantum interferences suggest the existence of a borderline beyond which quantum systems loose their coherences and can be described classically. Gravitational waves, generated within our galaxy or during the cosmic expansion, constitute a universal environment susceptible to lead to such a quantum decoherence mechanism. We assess this idea by studying the quantum decoherence due to gravitational waves on typical microscopic and macoscopic systems, namely an atom interferometer (HYPER) and the Earth-Moon system. We show that quantum interferences remain unaffected in the former case and that they disappear extremely rapidly in the latter case. We obtain the relevant parameters which, besides the ratio of the system's mass to Planck mass, characterize the loss of quantum coherences.
The quite different behaviors exhibited by microscopic and macroscopic systems with respect to quantum interferences suggest that there may exist a naturally frontier between quantum and classical worlds. The value of the Planck mass (22μμμg) may lead to the idea of a connection between this borderline and intrinsic fluctuations of spacetime. We show that it is possible to obtain quantitative answers to these questions by studying the diffusion and decoherence mechanisms induced on quantum systems by gravitational waves generated at the galactic or cosmic scales. We prove that this universal fluctuating environment strongly affects quantum interferences on macroscopic systems, while leaving essentially untouched those on microscopic systems. We obtain the relevant parameters which, besides the ratio of the system's mass to Planck mass, characterize the diffusion constant and decoherence time. We discuss the feasibility of experiments aiming at observing these effects in the context of ongoing progress towards more and more sensitive matter-wave interferometry.
Stochastic backgrounds of gravitational waves are intrinsic fluctuations of spacetime which lead to an unavoidable decoherence mechanism. This mechanism manifests itself as a degradation of the contrast of quantum interferences. It defines an ultimate decoherence border for matter-wave interferometry using larger and larger molecules. We give a quantitative characterization of this border in terms of figures involving the gravitational environment as well as the sensitivity of the interferometer to gravitational waves. The known level of gravitational noise determines the maximal size of the molecular probe for which interferences may remain observable. We discuss the relevance of this result in the context of ongoing progresses towards more and more sensitive matter-wave interferometry.
Decoherence describes the tendency of quantum sub-systems to dynamically lose their quantum character. This happens when the quantum sub-system of interest interacts and becomes entangled with an environment that is traced out. For ordinary macroscopic systems, electromagnetic and other interactions cause rapid decoherence. However, dark matter (DM) may have the unique possibility of exhibiting naturally prolonged macroscopic quantum properties due to its weak coupling to its environment, particularly if it only interacts gravitationally. In this work, we compute the rate of decoherence for light DM in the galaxy, where a local density has its mass, size, and location in a quantum superposition. The decoherence is via the gravitational interaction of the DM overdensity with its environment, provided by ordinary matter. We focus on relatively robust configurations: DM perturbations that involve an overdensity followed by an underdensity, with no monopole, such that it is only observable at relatively close distances. We use non-relativistic scattering theory with a Newtonian potential generated by the overdensity to determine how a probe particle scatters off of it and thereby becomes entangled. As an application, we consider light scalar DM, including axions. In the galactic halo, we use diffuse hydrogen as the environment, while near the earth, we use air as the environment. For an overdensity whose size is the typical DM de Broglie wavelength, we find that the decoherence rate in the halo is higher than the present Hubble rate for DM masses m a ≲ 5 × 10 −7 eV and in earth based experiments it is higher than the classical field coherence rate for m a ≲ 10 −6 eV . When spreading of the states occurs, the rates can become much faster, as we quantify. Also, we establish that DM BECs decohere very rapidly and so are very well described by classical field theory.