Bose, S;
Mazumdar, A;
Morley, GW;
Ulbricht, H;
Toros, M;
Paternostro, M;
Geraci, AA;
... Milburn, G; + view all
(2017)
Spin Entanglement Witness for Quantum Gravity.
Physical Review Letters
, 119
(24)
, Article 240401. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.240401.
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Abstract
Understanding gravity in the framework of quantum mechanics is one of the great challenges in modern physics. However, the lack of empirical evidence has lead to a debate on whether gravity is a quantum entity. Despite varied proposed probes for quantum gravity, it is fair to say that there are no feasible ideas yet to test its quantum coherent behavior directly in a laboratory experiment. Here, we introduce an idea for such a test based on the principle that two objects cannot be entangled without a quantum mediator. We show that despite the weakness of gravity, the phase evolution induced by the gravitational interaction of two micron size test masses in adjacent matter-wave interferometers can detectably entangle them even when they are placed far apart enough to keep Casimir-Polder forces at bay. We provide a prescription for witnessing this entanglement, which certifies gravity as a quantum coherent mediator, through simple spin correlation measurements.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | Spin Entanglement Witness for Quantum Gravity |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.240401 |
Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.240401 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | © 2017 American Physical Society. This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
Keywords: | Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Physics, Multidisciplinary, Physics, DECOHERENCE, REDUCTION, MODELS |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10040779 |
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