Observer Systems and the Density Ceiling: A Computed Bound on Coherent Laboratory Mass
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper computes the largest laboratory mass that can remain coherent for one second under gravitational decoherence estimates, as a concrete form of the observer problem in measurement theory. The mass at which the Diósi–Penrose time falls to one second, for ordinary condensed-matter density, is 1.000e-12 kilograms. A mass of 1e-12 kilograms already decoheres in 9.802e-06 seconds and a mass of 1e-09 kilograms in 9.802e-11 seconds in this estimate. The density ceiling itself is never approached at laboratory densities; the operative limitation on coherent observers and memories is gravitational decoherence scaling, not the ceiling. Wigner-friend scenarios with macroscopic coherent laboratories therefore face a quantified timescale obstacle in this model. The study is simulated and computed from stated assumptions; it is not a measurement.
Author: Aldred, William Alexander
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225769661
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