Experiments testing macroscopic quantum superpositions must be slow (Dr. A. Mari)
- Date: Jan 14, 2016
- Time: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Dr. Andrea Mari, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
- Room: B 2.46 (Seminar room Theory Division)
- Host: MPQ, Theory Division
We give a solution to the paradox which is based on the following
fundamental principle: any local experiment, discriminating a coherent
superposition from an incoherent statistical mixture, necessarily
requires a minimum time proportional to the mass (or charge) of the
system. For a charged particle, we consider two examples of such
experiments, and show that they are both consistent with the previous
limitation. In the first, the measurement requires to accelerate the
charge, that can entangle with the emitted photons. In the second, the
limitation can be ascribed to the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the
electromagnetic field. On the other hand, when applied to massive
particles our result provides an indirect evidence for the existence of
gravitational vacuum fluctuations and for the possibility of entangling a
particle with quantum gravitational radiation.