The_Duck comments on A new derivation of the Born rule - Less Wrong

15 Post author: MrMind 25 June 2014 03:07PM

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Comment author: shminux 25 June 2014 06:54:59PM *  2 points [-]

I see no justification whatsoever for concluding that gravity must therefore be detectable in the weak-field limit.

Suppose we perform an experiment where, based on the measured spin value, we move some macroscopic object with detectable gravity in opposite directions. In the Newtonian background spacetime approach there is no issue with MWI, as both branches live on the same spacetime. In a full GR case, however, the spacetime itself must decohere into different branches, or else we could detect the interaction between different branches gravitationally (I don't know if this has been tested, but it would be extremely surprising if detected). I am not sure what would the mechanism which splits the spacetime itself be, since all current QM/QFT models are done on a fixed background (ignoring ST and LQG). So presumably this requires Quantum Gravity. Yet the whole thing happens at very low energies, slow speeds and weak spacetime curvatures, so that's why I said that this would have to be a QG effect in the weak-field limit. Of course it would only be "detectable" in a sense that if there is no gravitational interaction between branches, then the spacetime itself must decohere by some QG mechanism.

Comment author: The_Duck 25 June 2014 08:17:45PM 3 points [-]

This is essentially the standard argument for why we have to quantize gravity. If the sources of the gravitational field can be in superposition, then it must be possible to superpose two different gravitational fields. But (as I think you acknowledge) this doesn't mean that quantum mechanical deviations from GR have to be detectable at low energies.

Comment author: shminux 25 June 2014 09:05:59PM *  1 point [-]

This is essentially the standard argument for why we have to quantize gravity.

Sort of. The problem first appears because the LHS of the EFE is a classical tensor, while the RHS is an operator, two different beasts. And using expectation value of the stress energy tensor does not work that well. The cosmological constant problem does not help, either. The MWI ontology just makes the issues starker. That's why I am surprised that Carroll completely avoids discussing it even though GR is his specialty.