Are Collapse Models Testable via Flavor Oscillations?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether collapse models, which modify quantum mechanics to prevent macroscopic superpositions, can be tested using flavor oscillations in neutral mesons, by deriving their effects and comparing with experimental data.

Contribution

It derives the impact of mass-proportional CSL collapse models on neutral meson dynamics, including relativistic effects, and compares predictions with experimental results.

Findings

Collapse models influence meson oscillation behavior.

Experimental data is consistent with collapse model predictions.

Neutral mesons can serve as tests for collapse theories.

Abstract

Collapse models predict the spontaneous collapse of the wave function, in order to avoid the emergence of macroscopic superpositions. In their mass-dependent formulation they claim that the collapse of any system's wave function depends on its mass. Neutral K, D, B mesons are oscillating systems that are given by Nature as superposition of different mass eigenstates. Thus they are unique and interesting systems to look at, for analyzing the experimental implications of such models, so far in agreement with all known experiments. In this paper we derive - for the single mesons and bipartite entangled mesons - the effect of the mass-proportional CSL collapse model on the dynamics on neutral mesons, including the relativistic effects. We compare the theoretical prediction with experimental data from different accelerator facilities.