29 March 2026 to 1 April 2026
Lloyd's Baia Hotel - Vietri Sul Mare (SA), Italy
Europe/Rome timezone

Emanuele Panella

30 Mar 2026, 15:35
25m
Lloyd's Baia Hotel - Vietri Sul Mare (SA), Italy

Lloyd's Baia Hotel - Vietri Sul Mare (SA), Italy

Via Benedetto Croce, snc, 84019 Vietri sul mare SA, Italy

Description

Title: Stochastic gravitational waves in classical gravity

Abstract: The quest for a quantum description of gravity has been long, diverse, and productive. Yet, despite decades of theoretical progress, there is still no direct experimental evidence for the quantum nature of spacetime. In this talk, I explore an alternative, indirect route to probing quantum gravity by assuming the fundamental classicality of the gravitational field and examining the resulting observational conflicts. In particular, I will discuss a key consistency condition—known as the decoherence–diffusion trade-off—that any theory of fundamentally classical gravity coupled to quantum matter must satisfy. By analysing a toy model of a linearised classical–quantum (CQ) gravity–matter system, I will explicitly show how this trade-off implies unavoidable, measurable
effects, such as a fundamental stochastic gravitational-wave background, which cannot be eliminated by fine-tuning the model parameters.

Presentation materials