Schrödinger's cat for de Sitter spacetime

DOI10.1088/1361-6382/ABF1C4zbMATH Open1481.83017arXiv2012.10025OpenAlexW3137303427MaRDI QIDQ5163377FDOQ5163377

Authors: Joshua Foo, Robert B. Mann, Magdalena Zych 

Publication date: 3 November 2021

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Quantum gravity is expected to contain descriptions of semiclassical spacetime geometries in quantum superpositions. To date, no framework for modelling such superpositions has been devised. Here, we provide a new phenomenological description for the response of quantum probes (i.e. Unruh-deWitt detectors) on a spacetime manifold in quantum superposition. By introducing an additional control degree of freedom, one can assign a Hilbert space to the spacetime, allowing it to exist in a superposition of spatial or curvature states. Applying this approach to static de Sitter space, we discover scenarios in which the effects produced by the quantum spacetime are operationally indistinguishable from those induced by superpositions of Rindler trajectories in Minkowski spacetime. The distinguishability of such quantum spacetimes from superpositions of trajectories in flat space reduces to the equivalence or non-equivalence of the field correlations between the superposed amplitudes.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.10025

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zbMATH Keywords

de Sitter spacetimequantum field theorysuperpositiondetectorsphenomenologysemiclassical gravity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Semiclassical techniques, including WKB and Maslov methods applied to problems in quantum theory (81Q20) Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Exact solutions to problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C15) Quantum state spaces, operational and probabilistic concepts (81P16) Observational and experimental questions in relativity and gravitational theory (83B05) Minkowski geometries in nonlinear incidence geometry (51B20) Flows related to mean curvature (53E10)

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Cited In (8)

• Superposition principle for energy density in semiclassical quantum gravity
• Considering a superposition of classical reference frames
• Unruh-DeWitt detector in dimensionally-reduced static spherically symmetric spacetimes
• The other half of quantum geometry: a first glimpse
• Entanglement harvesting of three Unruh-DeWitt detectors
• Quantum superposition of two gravitational cat states
• Tripartite uncertainty, quantum, and classical correlations dynamics under Unruh effect
• Superdensity operators for spacetime quantum mechanics

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