Testing Dissipative Collapse Models with a Levitated Micromagnet

TL;DR

This paper experimentally tests dissipative extensions of spontaneous wave function collapse models using a levitated micromagnet, setting new bounds on model parameters and ruling out certain temperature regimes for these theories.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental bounds on dissipative collapse models using a levitated micromagnet at ultralow dissipation.

Findings

Dissipative CSL model with temperatures below 1 nK is ruled out.

Dissipative DP model is excluded for temperatures below 10^{-13} K.

New bounds are set on models involving fluctuations of a complex-valued spacetime metric.

Abstract

We present experimental tests of dissipative extensions of spontaneous wave function collapse models based on a levitated micromagnet with ultralow dissipation. The spherical micromagnet, with radius $R=27$ $\mu$m, is levitated by Meissner effect in a lead trap at $4.2$ K and its motion is detected by a SQUID. We perform accurate ringdown measurements on the vertical translational mode with frequency $57$ Hz, and infer the residual damping at vanishing pressure $\gamma/2\pi<9$ $\mu$Hz. From this upper limit we derive improved bounds on the dissipative versions of the CSL (continuous spontaneous localization) and the DP (Di\'{o}si-Penrose) models with proper choices of the reference mass. In particular, dissipative models give rise to an intrinsic damping of an isolated system with the effect parameterized by a temperature constant; the dissipative CSL model with temperatures below 1 nK is ruled out, while the dissipative DP model is excluded for temperatures below $10^{-13}$ K. Furthermore, we present the first bounds on dissipative effects in a more recent model, which relates the wave function collapse to fluctuations of a generalized complex-valued spacetime metric.