Quantum dynamics of bound states under spacetime fluctuations

Teodora Oniga, Charles H.T. Wang

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Abstract

With recent developments in high-precision quantum measurements, the question of whether observations of decoherence from spacetime fluctuations are accessible experimentally arises. Here we investigate the dynamics of bound states interacting with an environment of gravitons under the Markov approximation. The corresponding Lindblad master equation is presented that enables gravitational decoherence and dissipation due to zero-point spacetime fluctuations to be analyzed. Specifically, we consider a one-dimensional cavity of massless scalar particles that models a light beam with negligible spin polarizations being reflected between two free masses. Numerical simulations have been performed to illustrate the wave-modal dependent decoherence and dissipation of such a configuration. We further demonstrate the existence of nontrivial collective effects akin to superradiance, providing amplifications of gravitational decoherence for a large number of identical bosonic particles.

Original languageEnglish
Article number012020
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Physics: Conference Series
Volume845
Issue number1
Early online date1 Jun 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for hospitality to Martin Land and other Organizers of the IARD 2016 Conference, where a related lecture was delivered by TO. This work was supported by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (TO) and by the EPSRC GG-Top Project and the Cruickshank Trust (CW).

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