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arXiv:2503.05350 · Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

Testing classicality of gravity by gravitation decoherence

V. Stefanov, Dmitri S. Mogilevtsev, I. Yu. Rybak, André Stefanov

Published Mar 31, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

Here, we discuss an influence of an external weak gravitational field on the gravitational self-decoherence effect with help of the stochastic extension of regularized Shrödinger-Newton equation in a curved background. We derive the master equation and demonstrate that it leads to the experimentally verifiable conclusions about applicability of the classical description of the weak gravitation field. Namely, a presence of oscillating terms in the otherwise purely exponential decay of the coherence would indicate classicality of gravity for the case.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.111.065026

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Here, we discuss an influence of an external weak gravitational field on the gravitational self-decoherence effect with help of the stochastic extension of regularized Shrödinger-Newton equation in a curved background. We derive the master equation and demonstrate that it leads to the experimentally verifiable conclusions about applicability of the classical description of the weak gravitation field. Namely, a presence of oscillating terms in the otherwise purely exponential decay of the coherence would indicate classicality of gravity for the case.
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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Abstract We present a detailed derivation of a model to study effects of self-gravitation from semi-classical gravity, described by the Schrödinger–Newton equation, employing spin superposition states in inhomogeneous magnetic fields, as proposed recently for experiments searching for gravity induced entanglement. Approximations for the experimentally relevant limits are discussed. Results suggest that spin interferometry could provide a more accessible route towards an experimental test of quantum aspects of gravity than both previous proposals to test semi-classical gravity and the observation of gravitational spin entanglement.
We present a general master equation describing the quantum dynamics of a scalar bosonic field interacting with an external weak and stochastic gravitational field. The dynamics predicts decoherence both in position and in energy momentum. We show how the master equation reproduces, thus generalizing, the previous results in the literature by taking appropriate limits. We estimate the effect of gravitational decoherence in atom interferometers, providing also a straightforward way to assess the magnitude of the effect.
The Schr\"odinger-Newton (SN) equation describes the effect of self-gravity on the evolution of a quantum system, and it has been proposed that gravitationally induced decoherence drives the system to one of the stationary solutions of the SN equation. However, the equation itself lacks a decoherence mechanism, because it does not possess any stochastic feature. In the present work we derive a stochastic modification of the Schr\"odinger-Newton equation, starting from the Einstein-Langevin equation in the theory of stochastic semiclassical gravity. We specialize this equation to the case of a single massive point particle, and by using Karolyhazy's phase variance method, we derive the Di\'osi-Penrose criterion for the decoherence time. We obtain a (nonlinear) master equation corresponding to this stochastic SN equation. This equation is, however, linear at the level of the approximation we use to prove decoherence; hence, the no-signaling requirement is met. Lastly, we use physical arguments to obtain expressions for the decoherence length of extended objects.
No experimental evidence exists, to date, whether or not the gravitational field must be quantised. Theoretical arguments in favour of quantisation are inconclusive. The most straightforward alternative to quantum gravity, a coupling between classical gravity and quantum matter according to the semi-classical Einstein equations, yields a nonlinear modification of the Schrödinger equation. Here, effects of this so-called Schrödinger-Newton equation are discussed, which allow for technologically feasible experimental tests.