On two recent proposals for witnessing nonclassical gravity

TL;DR

This paper critically examines recent proposals claiming to witness nonclassical gravity, highlighting that their foundational assumptions are limited and that counterexamples challenge their conclusiveness.

Contribution

The paper analyzes the assumptions behind recent proposals for witnessing nonclassical gravity and demonstrates their limitations through counterexamples.

Findings

Support for the classicality claim is limited to Koopman-type models.

Counterexamples exist within the configuration-ensemble model.

Neither proposal definitively tests nonclassical gravity.

Abstract

Two very similar proposals have been made recently for witnessing nonclassical features of gravity, by Bose et al. and by Marletto and Vedral. However, while these proposals are asserted to be very general, they are in fact based on a very strong claim: that quantum systems cannot become entangled via a classical intermediary. We point out that the support provided for this claim is only applicable to a very limited class of quantum-classical interaction models, corresponding to Koopman-type dynamics. We show that the claim is also valid for mean-field models, but that it is contradicted by explicit counterexamples based on the configuration-ensemble model. Thus, neither proposal provides a definitive test of nonclassical gravity.