Vacuum Fluctuations and Decoherence in Mesoscopic and Microscopic Systems

Abstract

We discuss recent experimental evidence of decoherence in a laboratory mesoscopic system in a cavity, from which we draw analogies with the decoherence that we argue is induced by microscopic quantum-gravity fluctuations in the space-time background. We emphasize the parallel rôles played in both cases by dissipation through non-trivial vacuum fluctuations that trigger the collapse of an initially coherent quantum state. We review a phenomenological parametrization of possible effects of this kind in the neutral kaon system, where they would induce CPT violation, and describe some epxerimental tests.

17 pages LATEX, 1 macro (sprocl.sty) required. Contribution to the Symposium on Flavour-Changing Neutral Currents: Present and Future Studies, UCLA (USA), February 1997