Gravity and decoherence: the double slit experiment revisited.

Samuel, J.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/6892

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DC Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Samuel, J.	-
dc.date.accessioned	2018-05-15T14:05:46Z	-
dc.date.available	2018-05-15T14:05:46Z	-
dc.date.issued	2018-02	-
dc.identifier.citation	Classical and Quantum Gravity, 2018, Vol.35, p045004	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0264-9381	-
dc.identifier.issn	1361-6382 (E)	-
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/2289/6892	-
dc.description	Restricted Access. An open-access version is available at arXiv.org (one of the alternative locations)	en_US
dc.description.abstract	The double slit experiment is iconic and widely used in classrooms to demonstrate the fundamental mystery of quantum physics. The puzzling feature is that the probability of an electron arriving at the detector when both slits are open is not the sum of the probabilities when the slits are open separately. The superposition principle of quantum mechanics tells us to add amplitudes rather than probabilities and this results in interference. This experiment defies our classical intuition that the probabilities of exclusive events add. In understanding the emergence of the classical world from the quantum one, there have been suggestions by Feynman, Diosi and Penrose that gravity is responsible for suppressing interference. This idea has been pursued in many different forms ever since, predominantly within Newtonian approaches to gravity. In this paper, we propose and theoretically analyse two 'gedanken' or thought experiments which lend strong support to the idea that gravity is responsible for decoherence. The first makes the point that thermal radiation can suppress interference. The second shows that in an accelerating frame, Unruh radiation does the same. Invoking the Einstein equivalence principle to relate acceleration to gravity, we support the view that gravity is responsible for decoherence.	en_US
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.publisher	IOP Publishing Ltd.	en_US
dc.relation.uri	http://arxiv.org/abs/1706.04401	en_US
dc.relation.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/aaa313	en_US
dc.relation.uri	http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?arXiv:1706.04401	en_US
dc.rights	2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.	en_US
dc.title	Gravity and decoherence: the double slit experiment revisited.	en_US
dc.type	Article	en_US
Appears in Collections:	Research Papers (TP)

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