Mixture equivalence principles and postquantum theories of gravity

Abstract

We examine the mixture equivalence principle (MEP), which states that proper and improper mixed states with the same density matrix are always experimentally indistinguishable, and a weaker version, which states that this is sometimes true in gravity theories. We point out that Møller-Rosenfeld semiclassical gravity violates the weak MEP and that nonlinear extensions of quantum mechanics violate the MEP. We further demonstrate that modifications of the Born rule in quantum theory also typically violate the MEP. We analyze such violations in the context of thermal baths, where proper and improper thermal states induce different physical situations. This has significant implications in the context of black hole physics. We argue that Møller-Rosenfeld semiclassical gravity is not the semiclassical limit of quantum gravity in the context of black hole spacetimes, even in the presence of N ≫ 1 matter fields.