{"paper":{"title":"Decoherence of spatial superpositions along stationary worldlines","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"A particle's spatial superposition along a stationary worldline decoheres from a modified vacuum field spectrum and differential time dilation across its wavefunction.","cross_cats":["gr-qc","physics.atom-ph"],"primary_cat":"quant-ph","authors_text":"Aaron Bartleson, Clemens Jakubec, Kanu Sinha, Peter W. Milonni","submitted_at":"2026-05-13T15:35:20Z","abstract_excerpt":"We analyze the decoherence of a particle's spatial superposition moving along a stationary worldline through the Minkowski vacuum. The particle is modeled via an internal degree of freedom that couples to a scalar field, and an external degree of freedom, i.e., its quantized center-of-mass motion around the stationary worldline. Assuming a separation of time scales between the particle's internal and external dynamics, we first obtain an effective red-shifted polarizability of the particle, characterizing the trajectory-dependent linear response of the internal oscillator to the field. We then"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"The resulting decoherence has two components: (1) arising from a modified field spectrum observed by the particle; and (2) due to a differential time-dilation over the particle's extended spatial wavefunction. For stationary trajectories, both contributions take an effectively thermal form.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"Assuming a separation of time scales between the particle's internal and external dynamics to obtain the effective red-shifted polarizability, together with the Born-Markov approximation for the master equation.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Decoherence of spatial superpositions along stationary worldlines arises from a red-shifted polarizability leading to thermal-like effects from modified field spectrum and differential time dilation.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"A particle's spatial superposition along a stationary worldline decoheres from a modified vacuum field spectrum and differential time dilation across its wavefunction.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"496f66ead66a887c29d531c428544054756d48eeadb333a8e2658547db8c1538"},"source":{"id":"2605.13677","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"923cb908-2c83-48d7-88d8-b22057f3b6c1","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-14T17:43:30.200619Z","strongest_claim":"The resulting decoherence has two components: (1) arising from a modified field spectrum observed by the particle; and (2) due to a differential time-dilation over the particle's extended spatial wavefunction. For stationary trajectories, both contributions take an effectively thermal form.","one_line_summary":"Decoherence of spatial superpositions along stationary worldlines arises from a red-shifted polarizability leading to thermal-like effects from modified field spectrum and differential time dilation.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"Assuming a separation of time scales between the particle's internal and external dynamics to obtain the effective red-shifted polarizability, together with the Born-Markov approximation for the master equation.","pith_extraction_headline":"A particle's spatial superposition along a stationary worldline decoheres from a modified vacuum field spectrum and differential time dilation across its wavefunction."},"references":{"count":72,"sample":[{"doi":"","year":null,"title":"The particle’s quantized center-of-mass interacts with the field via the internal oscillator, as given by the following interaction Hamiltonian: ˆHDU int (τ)≡−1 2 ˆXi(τ) { ˙ˆd0,st(τ),∂i ˆϕ(τ) } (19) T","work_id":"5bc6b09f-5f2f-4305-ada0-56110118639c","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":null,"title":"The differential time dilation across the center-of- mass wavefunction, described by the redshift-factor g00, gives rise to the interaction Hamiltonian: ˆHTD int (τ)≡ai ˆXi(τ) 4c2 { ˙ˆd1,st(τ)−˙ˆd0,st","work_id":"0c85ffed-46d1-4caf-bd79-215abe4f14b2","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":null,"title":"The diagonal termsΛii correspond to the decoher- ence in the position basis: Λij = 1 2ℏ2 ∫ ∞ 0 dτ′ ⣨{ ˆBi(τ),ˆBj(τ−τ′) }⟩ .(27)","work_id":"68b4ea47-e74e-4f78-94b4-8289abd6605c","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":null,"title":"The dissipation of the center-of-mass energy into the environment is Γij≡i 2Mℏ ∫ ∞ 0 dτ′τ′ ⣨[ ˆBi(τ),ˆBj(τ−τ′) ]⟩ .(28) Decoherence rateΛ ii is related toΓ ii via the fluctuation-dissipation theorem:2","work_id":"0514164e-704a-4b22-a16b-f59e78d1dd1f","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":null,"title":"The system Hamiltonian is modified by the terms: C(1) i ≡ ⣨ ˆBi(τ) ⟩ ,and (29) C(2) ij ≡i 2ℏ ∫ ∞ 0 dτ′ ⣨[ ˆBi(τ),ˆBj(τ−τ′) ]⟩ .(30) Remarkably, these contributions are akin to the first derivative of ","work_id":"817eab49-578c-42d9-a715-058a777a4161","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":72,"snapshot_sha256":"832f911cb9732eff12bff4d90e4b3deca778cdc4af4efad55f31488f63178f61","internal_anchors":1},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":2,"snapshot_sha256":"0e1175366c962b44aac12cdb370a3e4c8b4e7387ac7944b21fc631048c237bd5"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}