Nonrelativistic field theoretic setting for gravitational self-interactions

TL;DR

This paper presents a field theoretic model for nonrelativistic gravitational interactions, showing how it reduces to the Schrödinger-Newton theory and provides insights into the emergence of classical behavior in macroscopic bodies.

Contribution

It introduces a field theoretic framework with negative energy fields that extends the Schrödinger-Newton model and captures nonunitary dynamics for classical emergence.

Findings

The model reduces to Schrödinger-Newton in mean field approximation.

Exact model predicts nonunitary dynamics for macroscopic localization.

The approach offers a new perspective on gravitational self-interactions in quantum mechanics.

Abstract

It is shown that a recently proposed model for the gravitational interaction in non relativistic quantum mechanics is the instantaneous action at a distance limit of a field theoretic model containing a negative energy field. It reduces to the Schroedinger-Newton theory in a suitable mean field approximation. While both the exact model and its approximation lead to estimates for localization lengths, only the former gives rise to an explicit non unitary dynamics accounting for the emergence of the classical behavior of macroscopic bodies.