Quantum gravitational decoherence from fluctuating minimal length and deformation parameter at the Planck scale

Luciano Petruzziello () and Fabrizio Illuminati ()
Additional contact information
Luciano Petruzziello: Università degli Studi di Salerno
Fabrizio Illuminati: Università degli Studi di Salerno

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Schemes of gravitationally induced decoherence are being actively investigated as possible mechanisms for the quantum-to-classical transition. Here, we introduce a decoherence process due to quantum gravity effects. We assume a foamy quantum spacetime with a fluctuating minimal length coinciding on average with the Planck scale. Considering deformed canonical commutation relations with a fluctuating deformation parameter, we derive a Lindblad master equation that yields localization in energy space and decoherence times consistent with the currently available observational evidence. Compared to other schemes of gravitational decoherence, we find that the decoherence rate predicted by our model is extremal, being minimal in the deep quantum regime below the Planck scale and maximal in the mesoscopic regime beyond it. We discuss possible experimental tests of our model based on cavity optomechanics setups with ultracold massive molecular oscillators and we provide preliminary estimates on the values of the physical parameters needed for actual laboratory implementations.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24711-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24711-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24711-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().