Nature abhors macroscopic superpositions

Abstract

Superpositions of mass distributions can potentially lead to entanglement with the geometry of spacetime. Here we show that there exists a natural reluctance for macroscopic mass distributions to form such superpositions. The macroscopic superposition is modeled as a Schr{ö}dinger cat state. The reluctance manifests as a dip in the total energy of the Schr{ö}dinger cat state as a function of the separation distance between the terms in the superposition. The dip in the energy provides an opposing force preventing the formation of the superposition. A generalization of this phenomenon addressing the measurement problem is also discussed.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: The fiducial state of a mass distribution evolves by separating into a superposition of mass distributions located at two different positions.
• Figure 2: The normalized energy of the Schrödinger cat state is plotted for $\langle{n}\rangle=10^2, 10^3, 10^4$ as a function of the normalized separation distance between the two mass distributions in the superposition.
• Figure 3: Measurement setup for single-photon detection after a beamsplitter.