Experimental exclusion of a generalized Károlyházy gravity-induced decoherence model

Abstract

We report new experimental constraints on the generalized version of the gravity-induced decoherence model originally proposed by Károlyházy. Using data collected by the VIP Collaboration at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory with a high-purity germanium detector, we derive an improved lower bound on the spatial correlation length $R_K$ characterizing metric fluctuations in the model. We obtain a bound $R_K>4.64$ m (95\% C.L.), which exceeds by more than an order of magnitude the previous experimental limit. When combined with the theoretical upper bound $R_K<1.98$ m derived from macroscopic localization requirements, our result excludes the generalized Károlyházy model. The same conclusion applies to an associated non-Markovian formulation of the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) model. Our findings significantly tighten experimental constraints on gravity-related decoherence scenarios and demonstrate the sensitivity of underground low-background experiments to foundational modifications of quantum mechanics.

10 pages, 4 figures