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arXiv:quant-ph/9706051

Vacuum Fluctuations and Decoherence in Mesoscopic and Microscopic Systems

John R. Ellis, N. E. Mavromatos, D.V. Nanopoulos

Published Jun 23, 1997• 1 citation
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Abstract

We discuss recent experimental evidence of decoherence in a laboratory mesoscopic system in a cavity, from which we draw analogies with the decoherence that we argue is induced by microscopic quantum-gravity fluctuations in the space-time background. We emphasize the parallel rôles played in both cases by dissipation through non-trivial vacuum fluctuations that trigger the collapse of an initially coherent quantum state. We review a phenomenological parametrization of possible effects of this kind in the neutral kaon system, where they would induce CPT violation, and describe some epxerimental tests.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/9706051

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We discuss recent experimental evidence of decoherence in a laboratory mesoscopic system in a cavity, from which we draw analogies with the decoherence that we argue is induced by microscopic quantum-gravity fluctuations in the space-time background. We emphasize the parallel rôles played in both cases by dissipation through non-trivial vacuum fluctuations that trigger the collapse of an initially coherent quantum state. We review a phenomenological parametrization of possible effects of this kind in the neutral kaon system, where they would induce CPT violation, and describe some epxerimental tests.
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Abstract We discuss effects of loss of coherence in low energy quantum systems caused by or related to gravitation, referred to as gravitational decoherence. These effects, resulting from random metric fluctuations, for instance, promise to be accessible by relatively inexpensive table-top experiments, way before the scales where true quantum gravity effects become important. Therefore, they can provide a first experimental view on gravity in the quantum regime. We will survey models of decoherence induced both by classical and quantum gravitational fluctuations; it will be manifest that a clear understanding of gravitational decoherence is still lacking. Next we will review models where quantum theory is modified, under the assumption that gravity causes the collapse of the wave functions, when systems are large enough. These models challenge the quantum-gravity interplay, and can be tested experimentally. In the last part we have a look at the state of the art of experimental research. We will review efforts aiming at more and more accurate measurements of gravity ( G and g ) and ideas for measuring conventional and unconventional gravity effects on nonrelativistic quantum systems.
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In this brief review I discuss ways and tests of CPT-Violation in the context of quantum gravity theories with space-time foam vacua, which entail quantum decoherence of matter propagating in such backgrounds. I cover a wide variety of sensitive probes, ranging from cosmic neutrinos to meson factories. I pay particular emphasis on associating the latter with specific, probably unique ('smoking-gun'), effects of this type of CPT Violation, related to a modification of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) correlations in the entangled states of the relevant neutral mesons. I also present some semi-microscopic estimates of these latter effects, in the context of a specific string-inspired model of space-time foam ('D-particle foam').