DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2001-00286-8


Europhys. Lett., 54 (2) , pp. 135-140 (2001)

Gravitational decoherence of planetary motions

S. Reynaud¹, P. A. Maia Neto², A. Lambrecht¹ and M.-T. Jaekel<sup>3

1</sup>  Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (Laboratoire ENS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS.) - Campus Jussieu case 74, F75252 Paris, France
²  Instituto de Física, UFRJ - Caixa Postal 68528, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
³  Laboratoire de Physique Théorique (Laboratoire CNRS, ENS, Université Paris-Sud.) - 24 rue Lhomond, F75231 Paris, France

reynaud@spectro.jussieu.fr

(Received 13 November 2000; accepted 9 February 2001)

Abstract
We study the effect of the scattering of gravitational waves on planetary motions, say the motion of the Moon around the Earth. Though this effect has a negligible influence on dissipation, it dominates fluctuations and the associated decoherence mechanism, due to the very high effective temperature of the background of gravitational waves in our galactic environment.

PACS
04.30.-w - Gravitational waves: theory.
03.65.Yz - Decoherence; open systems; quantum statistical methods.
95.10.Ce - Celestial mechanics (including n-body problems).


© EDP Sciences 2001