Schrödinger’s cat for de Sitter spacetime

Abstract

Quantum gravity is expected to contain descriptions of semiclassical spacetime geometries in quantum superpositions. To date, no framework for modelling such superpositions has been devised. Here, we provide a new phenomenological description for the response of quantum probes (i.e. Unruh–deWitt detectors) on a spacetime manifold in quantum superposition. By introducing an additional control degree of freedom, one can assign a Hilbert space to the spacetime, allowing it to exist in a superposition of spatial or curvature states. Applying this approach to static de Sitter space, we discover scenarios in which the effects produced by the quantum spacetime are operationally indistinguishable from those induced by superpositions of Rindler trajectories in Minkowski spacetime. The distinguishability of such quantum spacetimes from superpositions of trajectories in flat space reduces to the equivalence or non-equivalence of the field correlations between the superposed amplitudes.