Quantum internal vibrations in macroscopic systems with classical centers of mass

Abstract

Harmonizing classical and quantum worlds is a major challenge for modern physics. A significant portion of the scientific community supports the notion that classical mechanics is an effective theory that arises from quantum mechanics. Recently, the present authors have argued that this should not be the case, as quantum mechanics is not trustworthy for describing the center of mass of systems with masses $m$ much larger than the Planck mass $M_{\text{P}}$. In this vein, a simple gravitational self-decoherence model was proposed, describing how the center of mass of quantum systems would classicalize for $m\sim M_{\text{P}}$. Here, we show that our model does not prevent macroscopic systems (with classical centers of mass) from harboring quantum internal vibrations (as has been observed in the laboratory).

5 pages, 2 figures

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Will we ever quantize the centers of mass of heavy systems? A case for a Heisenberg cut in quantum mechanics