Noise and decoherence induced by gravitons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitons can cause quantum noise and decoherence, suggesting that detecting these effects could provide new ways to test quantum gravity in laboratory experiments.

Contribution

It derives a Langevin equation for geodesic deviation with gravitons and analyzes graviton-induced decoherence of massive particles in vacuum.

Findings

Large squeezing is needed to detect graviton-induced noise.

Gravitons can significantly contribute to decoherence of spatial superpositions.

Decoherence effects could enable tabletop tests of quantum gravity.

Abstract

We study quantum noise and decoherence induced by gravitons. We derive a Langevin equation of geodesic deviation in the presence of gravitons. The amplitude of noise correlations tells us that large squeezing is necessary to detect the noise. We also consider the decoherence of spatial superpositions of two massive particles caused by gravitons in the vacuum state and find that gravitons could give a relevant contribution to the decoherence. The decoherence induced by gravitons would offer new vistas to test quantum gravity in tabletop experiments.