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arXiv:2307.10136

Stochastic Ricci Flow dynamics of the gravitationally induced wave-function collapse

Lulli, Matteo, Antonino Marcianò, Kristian Piscicchia

Published Jul 19, 2023• 1 citation
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Abstract

In order to reconcile the wave-function collapse in quantum mechanics with the finiteness of signals' propagation in general relativity, we delve into a stochastic version of the Ricci flow and study its non-relativistic limit in presence of matter. We hence derive the Diósi-Penrose collapse model for the wave-function of a quantum gas. The procedure entails additional parameters with respect to phenomenological models hitherto accounted for, including the temperature of the gas and the cosmological constant, in turn related to the stochastic gravitational noise responsible for the collapse.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2307.10136

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In order to reconcile the wave-function collapse in quantum mechanics with the finiteness of signals' propagation in general relativity, we delve into a stochastic version of the Ricci flow and study its non-relativistic limit in presence of matter. We hence derive the Diósi-Penrose collapse model for the wave-function of a quantum gas. The procedure entails additional parameters with respect to phenomenological models hitherto accounted for, including the temperature of the gas and the cosmological constant, in turn related to the stochastic gravitational noise responsible for the collapse.
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The Diósi-Penrose model states that the wave function collapse ending a quantum superposition occurs due to the instability of coexisting gravitational potentials created by distinct geometric conformations of the system in different states. The Heisenberg time-energy principle can be invoked to estimate the collapse time for the energy associated with this instability, the gravitational self-energy. This paper develops atomistic models to calculate the Diósi-Penrose collapse time. It applies them to a range of systems, from small molecules to large biological structures and macroscopic systems. An experiment is suggested to test the Diósi-Penrose hypothesis, and we critically examine the model, highlighting challenges from an atomistic perspective, such as gravitational self-energy saturation and limited extensivity.
We set up a general formalism for models of spontaneous wave function collapse with dynamics represented by a stochastic differential equation driven by general Gaussian noises, not necessarily white in time. In particular, we show that the non-Schrodinger terms of the equation induce the collapse of the wave function to one of the common eigenstates of the collapsing operators, and that the collapse occurs with the correct quantum probabilities. We also develop a perturbation expansion of the solution of the equation with respect to the parameter which sets the strength of the collapse process; such an approximation allows one to compute the leading order terms for the deviations of the predictions of collapse models with respect to those of standard quantum mechanics. This analysis shows that to leading order, the ``imaginary'' noise trick can be used for non-white Gaussian noise.
Diosi and Penrose have suggested a criterion for spontaneous wave function collapse. According to Penrose the profound conflict between the principle of superposition and general covariance entails the existence of reduction of quantum states, e.g. a quantum superposition of two different space–time geometries will collapse onto one of them. In his proposal, collapse time has an inverse relationship with ill-definedness in the gravitational self-energy, for the static gravitational fields. Anandan obtained the same result using the fluctuations of the connection of gravitational field. We show that in Newtonian limit of the superposition of a static and non-static gravitational field the results of the methods of Anandan and Penrose are different, but the numerical value of the extra term in Anandan’s approach, involving angular velocity, is not even considered in a case of practical interest. Then, we investigate the collapse time of the superposition of a static and non-static gravitational field.
We propose an effective non-relativistic framework in which wave-function collapse emerges as a deterministic dynamical instability induced by gravitational self-interaction and regulated by short-distance repulsion. The dynamics is described by a nonlinear Schrödinger equation supplemented by a phenomenological repulsive sector ensuring regularity at high densities. Using a variational Gaussian ansatz, we derive an explicit effective energy functional and show that extended quantum states lose stability beyond a critical mass scale. This loss of stability is associated with a bifurcation in the reduced dynamical system governing the wave-function width, leading to the emergence of stable localized configurations. Within this picture, collapse corresponds to the dynamical selection of one of these localized attractors, driven by infinitesimal asymmetries in the initial state and occurring without stochastic noise or environmental coupling. The mechanism provides a controlled and quantitative realization of gravity-induced localization, extending Schrödinger--Newton-type models while avoiding their pathological short-distance behavior. Possible implications for mesoscopic systems probing the quantum-to-classical transition are briefly discussed.