Schrödinger's cat for de Sitter spacetime

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.

arXiv comment15+3 pages, 10 figures. Accepted in CQG

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Quantum signatures of black hole mass superpositions
• Quantum superpositions of Minkowski spacetime
• On inference of quantization from gravitationally induced entanglement
• Entanglement harvesting of three Unruh-DeWitt detectors
• Unruh-DeWitt detector in dimensionally-reduced static spherically symmetric spacetimes
• Entanglement harvesting in quantum superposed spacetime
• Quantum conformal symmetries for spacetimes in superposition
• Schrödinger's Black Hole Cat
• Quantized mass-energy effects in an Unruh-DeWitt detector
• Gravitational entanglement witness through Einstein ring image
• Accelerated detector in a superposed spacetime
• Superpositions of thermalisations in relativistic quantum field theory
• A spacetime-covariant approach to inertial and accelerated quantum clocks in first-quantization
• Quantum superposition of boundary condition in ${\mathrm{PAdS}}_2$
• Considering a superposition of classical reference frames
• Knot invariants and indefinite causal order