2024/05/13 by Juan A. Cañas, Cañas, Juan A., A. Martín-Ruiz +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.07403
openalex publication_date 2024/05/13 · openalex created_date 2024/05/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Classical and quantum mechanical descriptions of motion are fundamentally different. The universality of free fall (UFF) is a distinguishing feature of the classical motion (which has been verified with astonishing precision), while quantum theory tell us only about probabilities and uncertainties thus breaking the UFF. There are strong reasons to believe that the classical description must emerge, under plausible hypothesis, from quantum mechanics. In this Essay we show that the UFF is an emergent phenomenon: the coarse-grained quantum distribution for high energy levels leads to the classical distribution as the lowest order plus quantum corrections. We estimate the size of these corrections on the Eötvös parameter and discuss the physical implications.