Gravitational Decoherence and the Possibility of Its Interferometric Detection.

Abstract

We present a general master equation describing the quantum dynamics of a scalar bosonic field interacting with an external weak and stochastic gravitational field. The dynamics predicts decoherence both in position and in energy momentum. We show how the master equation reproduces, thus generalizing, the previous results in the literature by taking appropriate limits. We estimate the effect of gravitational decoherence in atom interferometers, providing also a straightforward way to assess the magnitude of the effect.