Mixture equivalence principles and post-quantum theories of gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates the mixture equivalence principle in gravity theories, showing that certain semiclassical and nonlinear quantum modifications violate it, with implications for black hole physics and the nature of quantum gravity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Moller-Rosenfeld semiclassical gravity and nonlinear quantum mechanics violate the mixture equivalence principle, challenging their validity as quantum gravity limits.

Findings

Moller-Rosenfeld semiclassical gravity violates the weak MEP.

Nonlinear extensions of quantum mechanics violate the MEP.

Modifications of the Born rule also violate the MEP.

Abstract

We examine the mixture equivalence principle (MEP), which states that proper and improper mixed states with the same density matrix are always experimentally indistinguishable, and a weaker version, which states that this is sometimes true in gravity theories. We point out that Moller-Rosenfeld semiclassical gravity violates the weak MEP and that nonlinear extensions of quantum mechanics violate the MEP. We further demonstrate that modifications of the Born rule in quantum theory also typically violate the MEP. We analyse such violations in the context of thermal baths, where proper and improper thermal states induce different physical situations. This has significant implications in the context of black hole physics. We argue that Moller-Rosenfeld semiclassical gravity is not the semiclassical limit of quantum gravity in the context of black hole spacetimes, even in the presence of $N\gg1$ matter fields.