Colored collapse models from the non-interferometric perspective

TL;DR

This paper examines colored noise versions of collapse models, especially CSL, analyzing how non-interferometric experiments constrain these models based on noise spectrum, with mechanical tests providing the strongest bounds.

Contribution

It offers a detailed analysis of how colored noise impacts collapse models and identifies the most effective experimental bounds from mechanical tests.

Findings

Low frequency mechanical experiments set the strongest bounds on colored collapse models.

Colored noise generalizations of CSL are more realistic and can be effectively constrained.

Non-interferometric tests are crucial for testing the collapse models depending on noise spectrum.

Abstract

Models of spontaneous wave function collapse describe the quantum-to-classical transition by assuming a progressive breakdown of the superposition principle when the mass of the system increases, providing a well-defined phenomenology in terms of a non-linearly and stochastically modified Schrodinger equation, which can be tested experimentally. The most popular of such models is the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) model: in its original version, the collapse is driven by a white noise, and more recently, generalizations in terms of colored noises, which are more realistic, have been formulated. We will analyze how current non-interferometric tests bound the model, depending on the spectrum of the noise. We will find that low frequency purely mechanical experiments provide the most stable and strongest bounds.