The quite different behaviors exhibited by microscopic and macroscopicsystems with respect to quantum interferences suggest the existence of aborderline beyond which quantum systems loose their coherences and can bedescribed classically. Gravitational waves, generated within our galaxy orduring the cosmic expansion, constitute a universal environment susceptible tolead to such a quantum decoherence mechanism. We assess this idea by studyingthe quantum decoherence due to gravitational waves on typical microscopic andmacoscopic systems, namely an atom interferometer (HYPER) and the Earth-Moonsystem. We show that quantum interferences remain unaffected in the former caseand that they disappear extremely rapidly in the latter case. We obtain therelevant parameters which, besides the ratio of the system's mass to Planckmass, characterize the loss of quantum coherences.
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