Vacuum fluctuations induced decoherence of a diamagnetic nanosphere

Abstract: This paper provides a simple derivation of the decoherence rate for a diamagnetic nanoparticle in the presence of vacuum fluctuations of the magnetic field. Diamagnetic levitation is one of the key techniques for trapping, cooling, and creating a macroscopic quantum spatial superposition in many experiments. It is widely applied in many theoretical and experimental endeavors to test fundamental physics in matter-wave interferometers. To estimate the decoherence rate originating from magnetic-field fluctuations, we use the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We show that our resulting decoherence rate expression is analogous to that of dielectric material in the presence of vacuum fluctuations due to the electric background field component; however, it is often relatively suppressed due to the material properties.