Spacetime foam as a quantum thermal bath

TL;DR

This paper models spacetime foam as a quantum thermal bath using nonlocal interactions, predicting quantum coherence loss and effects like gravitational Lamb and Stark shifts in low-energy systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel effective model of spacetime foam as a quantum thermal field affecting low-energy quantum coherence.

Findings

Predicts loss of quantum coherence due to spacetime foam.

Describes spacetime foam as a quantum thermal field causing observable effects.

Derives a master equation for low-energy density matrix evolution.

Abstract

An effective model for the spacetime foam is constructed in terms of nonlocal interactions in a classical background. In the weak-coupling approximation, the evolution of the low-energy density matrix is determined by a master equation that predicts loss of quantum coherence. Moreover, spacetime foam can be described by a quantum thermal field that, apart from inducing loss of coherence, gives rise to effects such as gravitational Lamb and Stark shifts as well as quantum damping in the evolution of the low-energy observables.