Gravitational time dilation induced decoherence during spontaneous emission

Abstract

We investigate decoherence of quantum superpositions induced by gravitational time dilation and spontaneous emission between two atomic levels. It has been shown that gravitational time dilation can be an universal decoherence source. Here, we consider decoherence induced by gravitational time dilation only in the situation of spontaneous emission. Then, we obtain that the coherence of particle's position state depends on reference frame due to the time dilation changing the distinguishability of emission photon from two positions of particle. Changing the direction of light field can also result in the difference about the coherence of quantum superpositions. For observing the decoherence effect mainly due to gravitational time dilation, time-delayed feedback can be utilized to increase the decoherence of particle's superpositions.