Detecting gravitational decoherence with clocks: Limits on temporal resolution from a classical-channel model of gravity

Kiran E. Khosla and Natacha Altamirano
Phys. Rev. A 95, 052116 – Published 17 May 2017

Abstract

The notion of time is given a different footing in quantum mechanics and general relativity, treated as a parameter in the former and being an observer-dependent property in the latter. From an operational point of view time is simply the correlation between a system and a clock, where an idealized clock can be modeled as a two-level system. We investigate the dynamics of clocks interacting gravitationally by treating the gravitational interaction as a classical information channel. This model, known as the classical-channel gravity (CCG), postulates that gravity is mediated by a fundamentally classical force carrier and is therefore unable to entangle particles gravitationally. In particular, we focus on the decoherence rates and temporal resolution of arrays of N clocks, showing how the minimum dephasing rate scales with N, and the spatial configuration. Furthermore, we consider the gravitational redshift between a clock and a massive particle and show that a classical-channel model of gravity predicts a finite-dephasing rate from the nonlocal interaction. In our model we obtain a fundamental limitation in time accuracy that is intrinsic to each clock.

  • Figure
  • Received 19 January 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.052116

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & AstrophysicsAtomic, Molecular & OpticalQuantum Information, Science & Technology

Authors & Affiliations

Kiran E. Khosla1,2,* and Natacha Altamirano3,4,†

  • 1Center for Engineered Quantum Systems, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4067, Australia
  • 2Department of Physics, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4067, Australia
  • 3Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 2Y5
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1

  • *k.khosla@uq.edu.au
  • naltamirano@perimeterinstitute.ca

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 5 — May 2017

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