Decoherence from the light bending interaction
Phys. Rev. D 112, 046016 – Published 20 August, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qxdn-hw9y
Abstract
We analyze a decoherence effect, caused by the gravitational interaction between a massive body and the electromagnetic field. Assuming a quantum version of the light bending interaction, we show that it leads to decoherence of the mass if the light is not observed. Using the extreme weakness of the gravitational coupling, we derive explicitly the decoherence length scales for general states of the central mass and for both thermal and coherent light. Predictably, the effect is very faint for anything but hugely energetic light, however from the fundamental point of view of coexistence of both gravitation and quantum theories, it is there. Since effectively the studied system is a quantum optomechanical system, we hope our results, properly rescaled, will be also useful in optomechanics.
