Quantum processors encode computational information in relative phases and are therefore sensitive to spatially and temporally correlated dephasing. We formulate gravitational redshift as a physically constrained template for such noise. A fixed, known redshift produces a deterministic phase, whereas dephasing arises only when unresolved displacement, timing, or frequency fluctuations are transduced into phase uncertainty; for vertical motion, the conversion factor is β g = ω 0 g / c 0 2 . The gravity-specific content is thus the mapping from geometry fluctuations to phase covariance and frequency-noise spectra, while the resulting Gaussian dephasing dynamics are generic. We test spatial-kernel dependence using exponential, Gaussian, Matérn, and power-law correlations. Circuit-level effects are evaluated with an explicit GHZ-preparation circuit, showing that a full-GHZ-per-layer exponential approximation overestimates loss. For temporal correlations, we derive S δ ω = β g 2 S h and use a mechanically motivated drift-plus-vibration model, which attributes memory to the mechanical process rather than gravity. Platform estimates indicate that the gravity-transduced contribution is negligible compared with present technical dephasing. The framework therefore provides a falsifiable geometry-to-noise model while keeping mitigation and compilation claims quantitatively cautious.
Quantum processors encode computational information in relative phases and are therefore sensitive to spatially and temporally correlated dephasing. We formulate gravitational redshift as a physically constrained template for such noise. A fixed, known redshift produces a deterministic phase, whereas dephasing arises only when unresolved displacement, timing, or frequency fluctuations are transduced into phase uncertainty; for vertical motion, the conversion factor is β g = ω 0 g / c 0 2 . The gravity-specific content is thus the mapping from geometry fluctuations to phase covariance and frequency-noise spectra, while the resulting Gaussian dephasing dynamics are generic. We test spatial-kernel dependence using exponential, Gaussian, Matérn, and power-law correlations. Circuit-level effects are evaluated with an explicit GHZ-preparation circuit, showing that a full-GHZ-per-layer exponential approximation overestimates loss. For temporal correlations, we derive S δ ω = β g 2 S h and use a mechanically motivated drift-plus-vibration model, which attributes memory to the mechanical process rather than gravity. Platform estimates indicate that the gravity-transduced contribution is negligible compared with present technical dephasing. The framework therefore provides a falsifiable geometry-to-noise model while keeping mitigation and compilation claims quantitatively cautious.
The notion of time is given a different footing in quantum mechanics and general relativity, treated as a parameter in the former and being an observer-dependent property in the latter. From an operational point of view time is simply the correlation between a system and a clock, where an idealized clock can be modeled as a two-level system. We investigate the dynamics of clocks interacting gravitationally by treating the gravitational interaction as a classical information channel. This model, known as the classical-channel gravity (CCG), postulates that gravity is mediated by a fundamentally classical force carrier and is therefore unable to entangle particles gravitationally. In particular, we focus on the decoherence rates and temporal resolution of arrays of N clocks, showing how the minimum dephasing rate scales with N, and the spatial configuration. Furthermore, we consider the gravitational redshift between a clock and a massive particle and show that a classical-channel model of gravity predicts a finite-dephasing rate from the nonlocal interaction. In our model we obtain a fundamental limitation in time accuracy that is intrinsic to each clock.
We investigate the interaction of a transmon qubit with a classical gravitational field. Exploiting the generic phenomena of the gravitational redshift and Aharonov-Bohm phase, we show that entangled quantum states dephase with a universal rate. The gravitational phase shift is expressed in terms of a quantum computing noise channel. We give a measurement protocol based on a modified phase estimation algorithm which is linear in the phase drift, which is optimal for measuring the small phase that is acquired from the gravitation channel. Additionally, we propose qubit-based platforms as quantum sensors for precision gravitometers and mechanical strain gauges as an example of this phenomenon's utility. We estimate a sensitivity for measuring the local gravitational acceleration to be δ g / g ∼ 10 − 7 . This paper demonstrates that classical gravitation has a nontrivial influence on quantum computing hardware and provides an illustration of how quantum computing hardware may be utilized for purposes other than computation. While we focus on superconducting qubits, we point to the universal nature of gravitational phase effects for all quantum platforms.
Table-top proposals to test gravity-mediated entanglement aim to distinguish coherent gravitational interactions from classical dephasing processes that generate identical phases on both interferometers. A particularly important contribution is platform-invariant timing noise, which can be accessed through optical-clock cross-spectra and frequency-transfer links. In this work we (i) derive the mapping from clock cross-spectra to an effective common-mode dephasing rate, (ii) show that the corresponding dynamical channel is LOCC and therefore unable to generate entanglement, and (iii) combine published clock and interferometer noise floors to obtain quantitative bounds on the ratio between common-mode and local dephasing rates in representative gravity-entanglement proposals. Across QGEM-, MAQRO-, and levitated-nanoparticle regimes we find a robust hierarchy γcom/γloc∼10−9--10−11, identifying platform-invariant timing noise as a negligible but calibratable background. We further derive visibility and Bell--CHSH thresholds in the presence of both common-mode and local dephasing, and illustrate the full calibration workflow with a simple synthetic example anchored to state-of-the-art clock metrology. Extended derivations and statistical tools are provided in the Supplemental Material.
Gravity is traditionally understood either as geometric curvature (general relativity) or as an external classical field acting on quantum systems. This paper develops a unified alternative: gravity arises from spatial variation in the temporal coherence window τ(x), the finite interval over which quantum systems can sustain coherent phase relations before collapse. Building on experimental evidence that decoherence rates in laboratory systems obey an empirical κ/τ law, I show that gravitational self-energy constrains coherence time according to τgrav ∝ 1/√(Gρ). Three independent derivations—via a modified Lindblad equation, an effective potential Veff = A/τ, and spectral-overlap analysis—converge on the same dynamical law: a(x) = −∇[1/τ(x)], identifying gravitational acceleration as coherence-gradient descent. In this view, mass is condensed temporal capacity, curvature is the geometric imprint of temporal structure, and falling is the drift of quantum evolution toward regions where coherence collapses most rapidly. I extend this framework to show that gravity is engineerable: any spatially structured decoherence environment producing an artificial coherence profile τart(x) generates a gravitational-like acceleration agen(x) = −κart ∇[1/τart(x)], indistinguishable from natural gravitation insofar as their coherence-gradient profiles match. I provide explicit recipes for realizing such gradients using noise-shaping, optical scattering, dissipative optical lattices, and superconducting cavity engineering, along with quantitative acceleration estimates (10⁻⁷–10⁻³ m/s²) and full experimental protocols for cold atoms, matter-wave interferometry, and superconducting qubits. Finally, the framework offers a microphysical account of gravitational time dilation, predicts non-universal response in highly coherent systems, suggests achievable tabletop tests, and points toward a future τ-field theory capable of reproducing general relativity in the macroscopic limit. The result is a falsifiable, coherence-based foundation for gravitation and the first principled pathway to artificial gravity via engineered temporal coherence.
Stochastic semiclassical gravity represents stress--energy fluctuations through the Einstein--Langevin noise kernel. We examine its Newtonian projection for specified closed, particle-number-conserving non-relativistic sources and distinguish the source covariance from a reduced matter channel. The connected one-particle covariance is state dependent and differs from the universal potential-noise law postulated in the Diósi--Penrose model. To relate the source spectrum to dephasing, we define a separate static probe subject to a prescribed Gaussian noise law. For a finite-variance source operator in an isolated non-degenerate eigenstate, the full connected spectral measure has a gap around zero. The probe dephasing exponent is then bounded and its long-time slope vanishes. Stationary doublets can instead carry static or low-frequency spectral lines, while a specified freely spreading Gaussian source gives a finite limiting exponent. Continuum results depend on preparation, normalisation, infrared regularisation and the order of limits. We also compare coherent and incoherent many-body preparations and establish no-signalling for fixed classical-noise channels. These results identify the spatial, temporal and dynamical assumptions needed to relate source fluctuations to a matter-decoherence model. They do not exclude Markovian limits in other number-conserving non-relativistic preparations.
Quantum Fractal Spacetime (QFS) has been proposed as a scale-invariant framework in which the smooth macroscopic spacetime of general relativity emerges from a nondifferentiable microscopic geometry with effective Hausdorff dimension D ≈ 2. Existing QFS work suggests that scale-dependent path lengths, vacuum fluctuations, and reduced ultraviolet dimensionality could generate experimentally accessible noise and decoherence in quantum systems. Here we develop a falsifiable test program that maps QFS-inspired spacetime fluctuations onto observables available in present-day superconducting and trapped-ion quantum hardware. We combine two modern descendants of Wheeler’s spacetime-foam intuition—holographic-like correlated geometric noise and intrinsic decoherence sourced by quantum spacetime itself—into a common effective qubit-noise framework. In this description, QFS contributes both local colored dephasing and nonlocal phase correlations, which can be probed with Ramsey interferometry, dynamical decoupling, rotating-frame relaxometry, multilevel spectroscopy, and cross-qubit covariance analysis. The resulting near-term experimental signatures are: (i) an irreducible residual 1/fα phase-noise floor that survives aggressive subtraction of known technical noise, (ii) decoherence rates that scale systematically with transition energy or qudit level, and (iii) spatially correlated phase fluctuations across qubits or devices that cannot be explained by shared electronics, cryogenic vibrations, cosmic rays, or environmental backgrounds. We show that superconducting processors and trapped-ion platforms provide complementary leverage: transmons offer high bandwidth, dense multiplexing, and multilevel access, while trapped ions provide extreme coherence, narrow spectroscopic control, and substrate-independent cross-checks. We further place the proposal in the context of existing bounds from interferometric holographic-noise searches and neutrino decoherence constraints, arguing that qubit experiments are not redundant because they probe internal phase evolution of bound quantum systems rather than free propagation alone. The framework developed here turns near-term quantum processors into tabletop sensors of QFS-inspired spacetime phenomenology and, at minimum, enables meaningful bounds on a broad class of fractal-spacetime couplings.