Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Scientific paper
2008-06-16
in Beyond the Quantum, Proceedings Leiden 2006, Eds. Th.M. Nieuwenhuizen, V. Spicka, B. Mehmani, M.J. Aghdami, A.Yu. Khrenniko
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
7 pages
Scientific paper
The quite different behaviors exhibited by microscopic and macroscopic systems with respect to quantum interferences suggest the existence of a borderline beyond which quantum systems loose their coherences and can be described classically. Gravitational waves, generated within our galaxy or during the cosmic expansion, constitute a universal environment susceptible to lead to such a quantum decoherence mechanism. We assess this idea by studying the quantum decoherence due to gravitational waves on typical microscopic and macoscopic systems, namely an atom interferometer (HYPER) and the Earth-Moon system. We show that quantum interferences remain unaffected in the former case and that they disappear extremely rapidly in the latter case. We obtain the relevant parameters which, besides the ratio of the system's mass to Planck mass, characterize the loss of quantum coherences.
Jaekel Marc-Thierry
Lambrecht Astrid
Lamine Brahim
Neto Paulo Maia
Reynaud Serge
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