Testing Linearity of Quantum Theory with a Thermometer

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermal effects of collapse models in quantum theory by calculating heat generation in a lattice, providing a potential experimental test for the validity of collapse models versus standard quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation of collapse-driven heat generation in a 3D lattice for the CSL model with non-white noise, linking collapse noise to measurable thermal effects.

Findings

Derived temperature distribution for a sphere under specific conditions.

Showed the effect depends on the collapse noise spectrum cutoff.

Provided a framework for experimental testing of collapse models.

Abstract

Collapse models postulate that space is filled with a collapse noise field, inducing quantum Brownian motions which are dominant during the measurement, thus causing collapse of the wave function. An important manifestation of collapse noise field, if any, is thermal energy generation, thus disturbing the temperature profile of a system. The experimental investigation of collapse-driven heating effect has provided, so far, the most promising test of collapse models against standard quantum theory. In this paper, we calculate the collapse-driven heat generation for a three-dimensional multi-atomic Bravais lattice, by solving stochastic Heisenberg equations. We perform our calculation for the mass-proportional Continuous Spontaneous Localization collapse model with non-white noise. We obtain the temperature distribution of a sphere under stationary-state and adiabatic surface conditions. However, the exact quantification of effect highly depends on the value of cutoff in the collapse noise spectrum.