Detection of Space-time Fluctuations by a Model Matter Interferometer

In papers on primary state diffusion (Percival 1994, 1995), numerical estimates suggested that fluctuations in the space-time metric on the scale of the Planck time (≈ 10s) could be detected using atom interferometers. In this paper we first specify a stochastic metric obtained from fluctuations that propagate with the velocity of light, and then develop the non-Markovian quantum state diffusion theory required to estimate the resulting decoherence effects on a model matter interferometer. Both commuting and non-commuting fluctuations are considered. The effects of the latter are so large that if they applied to some real atom interferometry experiments they would have suppressed the observed interference. The model is too crude to conclude that such fluctuations do not exist, but it does demonstrate that the small numerical value of the Planck time does not alone prevent experimental access to Planck-scale phenomena in the laboratory. 96 July 15, QMW-PH-96-15 submitted to Proc Roy Soc