Cosmic Test of Quantum Mechanics

B. G. Sidharth

Catalina Curceanu, Sergio Bartalucci, Angelo Bassi +25 more

By performing X-rays measurements in the "cosmic silence" of the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso, LNGS-INFN, we test a basic principle of quantum mechanics: the Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP), for electrons. We present the achieved results of the VIP experiment and the ongoing VIP2 measurement aiming to gain two orders of magnitude improvement in testing PEP. We also use a similar experimental technique to search for radiation (X and gamma) predicted by continuous spontaneous localization models, which aim to solve the "measurement problem".

Jason R. Gallicchio, Andrew S. Friedman, David I. Kaiser

We propose a practical scheme to use photons from causally disconnected cosmic sources to set the detectors in an experimental test of Bell's inequality. In current experiments, with settings determined by quantum random number generators, only a small amount of correlation between detector settings and local hidden variables, established less than a millisecond before each experiment, would suffice to mimic the predictions of quantum mechanics. By setting the detectors using pairs of quasars or patches of the cosmic microwave background, observed violations of Bell's inequality would require any such coordination to have existed for billions of years-an improvement of 20 orders of magnitude.

P.M. Clark, J.E. Turner

Antony Valentini

Abstract ‘A Message from the Beginning of Time’ gives a detailed account of the search for violations of quantum mechanics in the early universe, in particular as recorded in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We begin with an overview of cosmology, with a focus on how the early history of our universe is imprinted on the ‘CMB sky’. We explain how inflationary cosmology can be employed to test Born’s formula at very early times. We describe various anomalies which have been reported in data from the Planck and other satellites, and we discuss how these might be interpreted as signs of a failure of quantum mechanics.

Steven Weinberg