Gravitational Decoherence, Alternative Quantum Theories and Semiclassical Gravity

Abstract

In this report we discuss three aspects: 1) Semiclassical gravity theory (SCG): 4 levels of theories describing the interaction of quantum matter with classical gravity; 2) Alternative Quantum Theories: Discerning those which are derivable from general relativity (GR) plus quantum field theory (QFT) from those which are not; 3) Gravitational Decoherence: Derivation of a master equation and examination of the assumptions which led to the claims of observational possibilities. We list three sets of corresponding problems worthy of pursuit: a) Newton-Schrödinger Equations in relation to SCG; b) Master equation of gravity-induced effects serving as discriminator of 2); and c) Role of gravity in macroscopic quantum phenomena.

18 pages. Invited talk at the Second International Conference on Emergent Quantum Mechanics, Vienna, October 3-6, 2013. Note: this arXiv version is more up to date than that which will appear in J. Phys. (Conf. Ser.)

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• Gravitational Decoherence of Dark Matter
• The minimum mass of a spherically symmetric object in $D$-dimensions, and its implications for the mass hierarchy problem
• Decoherence induced by long wavelength gravitons
• Environmental gravitational decoherence and a tensor noise model
• Self-gravitating Interferometry and Intrinsic Decoherence
• General Relativistic Decoherence with Applications to Dark Matter Detection
• Decoherence from General Relativity
• Gravity, Quantum Fields and Quantum Information: Problems with classical channel and stochastic theories
• Graviton physics: Quantum field theory of gravitons, graviton noise and gravitational decoherence -- a concise tutorial
• Analogue gravity simulation of superpositions of spacetimes
• Gravitation as a source of decoherence