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Main Authors: Bazylewicz, T., Szczepanik, M., Kłos, J., Korbicz, J. K.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.18079
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author Bazylewicz, T.
Szczepanik, M.
Kłos, J.
Korbicz, J. K.
author_facet Bazylewicz, T.
Szczepanik, M.
Kłos, J.
Korbicz, J. K.
contents We analyse a decoherence effect, caused by the gravitational interaction between a massive body and the electromagnetic field. Assuming a quantum version of the light bending interaction, we show that it leads to decoherence of the mass if the light is not observed. Using the extreme weakness of the gravitational coupling, we derive explicitly the decoherence lengthscales for general states of the central mass and for both thermal and coherent light. Predictably, the effect is very faint for anything but hugely energetic light, however from the fundamental point of view of co-existence of both gravitation and quantum theories, it is there. Since effectively the studied system is a quantum optomechanical system, we hope our results, properly rescaled, will be also useful in optomechanics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_18079
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Decoherence from the light bending interaction
Bazylewicz, T.
Szczepanik, M.
Kłos, J.
Korbicz, J. K.
Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We analyse a decoherence effect, caused by the gravitational interaction between a massive body and the electromagnetic field. Assuming a quantum version of the light bending interaction, we show that it leads to decoherence of the mass if the light is not observed. Using the extreme weakness of the gravitational coupling, we derive explicitly the decoherence lengthscales for general states of the central mass and for both thermal and coherent light. Predictably, the effect is very faint for anything but hugely energetic light, however from the fundamental point of view of co-existence of both gravitation and quantum theories, it is there. Since effectively the studied system is a quantum optomechanical system, we hope our results, properly rescaled, will be also useful in optomechanics.
title Decoherence from the light bending interaction
topic Quantum Physics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.18079