A Postquantum Theory of Classical Gravity?

By Jonathan Oppenheim. Physical Review X, 2018

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We present a consistent theory of classical gravity coupled to quantum field theory. The dynamics is linear in the density matrix, completely positive and trace-preserving, and reduces to Einstein's equations in the classical limit. The constraints of general relativity are imposed as a symmetry on the equations of motion. The assumption that gravity is classical necessarily modifies the dynamical laws of quantum mechanics -- the theory must be fundamentally stochastic involving finite sized and probabilistic jumps in space-time and in the quantum field. Nonetheless the quantum state of the system can remain pure conditioned on the classical degrees of freedom. The measurement postulate of quantum mechanics is not needed since the interaction of the quantum degrees of freedom with classical space-time necessarily causes collapse of the wave-function. More generally, we derive a form of classical-quantum dynamics using a non-commuting divergence which has as its limit deterministic classical Hamiltonian evolution, and which doesn't suffer from the pathologies of the semi-classical theory.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/206ef403673fe4687ec740148b3bb3b4ef3269d2