NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF QUANTUM STATE REDUCTION IN BOSE–EINSTEIN CONDENSATES WITH ATTRACTIVE INTERACTIONS

Abstract

Following an idea first proposed by Penrose in 1996 to explain the problem of quantum state reduction as a gravitational effect, Moroz, Penrose and Tod1 have shown that quantum state reduction due to gravitational interactions could take place in about one second for the case of 1011 nucleons. However, keeping 1011 nucleons together in a quantum macroscopic state does not appear to be feasible as yet. The closest physical system to such a situation is provided by Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC) with attractive interactions. We present numerical simulations of the Schrödinger–Newton equations, which show that an attractive BEC with 103 atoms would yield a decorrelation time of the order of 10-2 seconds. Hence, a "Penrose-like" reduction, induced by BEC attractive interaction instead of gravity, might be observable and possibly monitored in current BEC experiments with attractive interactions.