Rationale for a correlated worldline theory of quantum gravity

It is argued that gravity should cause a breakdown of quantum mechanics, at low energies, accessible to table-top experiments. It is then shown that one can formulate a theory of quantum gravity in which gravitational correlations exist between worldline or worldsheet paths, for the particle or fiel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New journal of physics 2015-06, Vol.17 (6), p.65017
Main Author: Stamp, P C E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breakdown
Bunching
Correlation
Correlators
Crossovers
decoherence
Equivalence principle
Gravitation theory
Gravitational collapse
Gravity
Physics
Quantum gravity
Quantum mechanics
Superposition (mathematics)
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Summary:It is argued that gravity should cause a breakdown of quantum mechanics, at low energies, accessible to table-top experiments. It is then shown that one can formulate a theory of quantum gravity in which gravitational correlations exist between worldline or worldsheet paths, for the particle or field of interest. Using a generalized equivalence principle, one can give a unique form for the correlators, yielding a theory with no adjustable parameters. A key feature of the theory is the 'bunching' of quantum trajectories caused by the gravitational correlations-this is not a decoherence or a 'collapse' mechanism. This bunching causes a breakdown of the superposition principle for large masses, with a very rapid crossover to classical behaviour at an energy scale which depends on the physical structure of the object. Formal details, and applications of the theory, are kept to a minimum in this paper; but we show how physical quantities can be calculated, and give a detailed discussion of the dynamics of a single particle.
ISSN:1367-2630
1367-2630
DOI:10.1088/1367-2630/17/6/065017