Testing Spontaneous Wave-Function Collapse Models on Classical Mechanical Oscillators

Lajos Diósi
Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 050403 – Published 4 February 2015

Abstract

We show that the heating effect of spontaneous wave-function collapse models implies an experimentally significant increment ΔTsp of equilibrium temperature in a mechanical oscillator. The obtained new form ΔTsp is linear in the oscillator’s relaxation time τ and independent of the mass. The oscillator can be in a classical thermal state, also the effect ΔTsp is classical for a wide range of frequencies and quality factors. We note that the test of ΔTsp does not necessitate quantum state monitoring just tomography. In both the gravity-related and the continuous spontaneous localization models the strong-effect edge of their parameter range can be challenged in existing experiments on classical oscillators. For the continuous spontaneous localization theory, the conjectured highest collapse rate parameter values become immediately constrained by evidences from current experiments on extreme slow-ring-down oscillators.

  • Received 24 November 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.050403

© 2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Lajos Diósi*

  • Wigner Research Center for Physics, H-1525 Budapest 114. P.O. Box 49, Hungary

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Vol. 114, Iss. 5 — 6 February 2015

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