Can massive superpositions exclude the GRW collapse rate? · revision history
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Superseded · first revision · record
- Title
- Can massive superpositions exclude the GRW collapse rate?
- Plain
- Collapse models modify quantum mechanics so that large objects lose superpositions on their own. The original proposed rate has never been ruled out.
- Precise
- Continuous spontaneous localization with rate $\lambda$ and length $r_C$. Exclude $\lambda = 1e-16\ \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ at $r_C = 1e-5\ \mathrm{cm}$ (the GRW value of Ghirardi, Rimini and Weber) by interferometric or non-interferometric (heating, noise) tests with massive objects. Answer: yes or no, with the excluded region in the $(\lambda, r_C)$ plane.
- Settled by
- An interferometry or heating experiment whose excess-decoherence bound lies below lambda = 1e-16 s^-1 at r_C = 1e-5 cm.
- Kind
- well-posed
- Answer type
- yes-no
- References
- (empty)
- Literature status
- open
- Status note
- Non-interferometric tests (to 2021) constrain the enhanced Adler rates, and 2025 interference of sodium clusters above 170,000 amu (Pedalino et al., arXiv:2507.21211) tightened interferometric bounds; the GRW point is not reported excluded, which should be checked against the 2025 exclusion plot.
- Posed since
- 1986