VIP experiment at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso challenges Penrose theory
A new record was achieved in the study of the gravity-related wave function collapse model, which was proposed by Lajos Diósi and Roger Penrose (DP model) in order to solve the measurement problem. The experimental research was performed in the framework of the VIP collaboration, having Catalina Curceanu as Spokesperson and Kristian Piscicchia as INFN responsible.
The experiment looked for signal of a characteristic spontaneous radiation emission, which is predicted by the model. The measurement was performed at the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory exploiting a High Purity Germanium detector. The results were recently published in the Nature Physics research article "Underground test of gravity-related wave function collapse". The experimental sensitivity was, for the first time, such as to falsify the model, at least in the present version. The measured upper limit on the spontaneous ration rate is orders of magnitude less then the theory expectation.
The group is collaborating with expert theoreticians in this sector (among which Penrose and Diósi themselves) to the development of a new “gravity-related collapse” model, and already works to the design and realization of an even more sensitive experiment, in order to test other elusive collapse models.
The work published in Nature Physics was widespread disseminated:
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Still from interactive video installation, courtesy of camerAnebbia
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