Bootstrapping time dilation decoherence

DOI10.1007/S10701-015-9939-9zbMATH Open1328.83034arXiv1503.05488OpenAlexW3105339556MaRDI QIDQ892923FDOQ892923

Authors: Cisco Gooding, W. G. Unruh 

Publication date: 12 November 2015

Published in: Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We present a general relativistic model of a spherical shell of matter with a perfect fluid on its surface coupled to an internal oscillator, which generalizes a model recently introduced by the authors to construct a self-gravitating interferometer [1]. The internal oscillator evolution is defined with respect to the local proper time of the shell, allowing the oscillator to serve as a local clock that ticks differently depending on the shell's position and momentum. A Hamiltonian reduction is performed on the system, and an approximate quantum description is given to the reduced phase space. If we focus only on the external dynamics, we must trace out the clock degree of freedom, and this results in a form of intrinsic decoherence that shares some features with a proposed "universal" decoherence mechanism attributed to gravitational time dilation [2]. We note that the proposed decoherence remains present in the (gravity-free) limit of flat spacetime, emphasizing that the effect can be attributed entirely to proper time differences, and thus is not necessarily related to gravity. Whereas the effect described in [2] vanishes in the absence of an external gravitational field, our approach bootstraps the gravitational contribution to the time dilation decoherence by including self-interaction, yielding a fundamentally gravitational intrinsic decoherence effect.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05488

Recommendations

• Fundamental decoherence from quantum gravity: a pedagogical review
• A master equation for gravitational decoherence: probing the textures of spacetime
• A gravitationally induced decoherence model using Ashtekar variables
• Gravitational decoherence for mesoscopic systems
• Entanglement of quantum clocks through gravity

zbMATH Keywords

general relativityintrinsic decoherencetime dilation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General questions in astronomy and astrophysics (85A04) Special relativity (83A05) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Open systems, reduced dynamics, master equations, decoherence (81S22)

Cites Work

• Canonical Variables for General Relativity
• On gravity's role in quantum state reduction
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• General relativistic effects in quantum interference of photons
• On the non-convexity of solutions in free-boundary problems arising in plasma physics and fluid dynamics
• The decoherence puzzle

Cited In (7)

• Transition to light-like trajectories in thin shell dynamics
• A gravitationally induced decoherence model using Ashtekar variables
• Decoherence of a composite particle induced by a weak quantized gravitational field
• Equivalence principle for quantum systems: dephasing and phase shift of free-falling particles
• Quantum tunneling of composite object coupled with quantized radiation field
• Time dilation in quantum systems and decoherence
• Fundamental decoherence from quantum gravity: a pedagogical review

This page was built for publication: Bootstrapping time dilation decoherence

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q892923)