Probing the nonclassical dynamics of a quantum particle in a gravitational field
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Leibniz Universität Hannover（汉诺威莱布尼茨大学理论物理研究所）；Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät, Universität Siegen（锡根大学自然科学技术学院）
Martin Plávala, Stefan Nimmrichter, Matthias Kleinmann
In quantum mechanics, the time evolution of particles is given by the Schrödinger equation. It is valid in a nonrelativistic regime where the interactions with the particle can be modelled by a potential and quantised fields are not required. This has been verified in countless experiments when the interaction is of electromagnetic origin, but also corrections due to the quantised field are readily observed. When the interaction is due to gravity, then one cannot expect to see effects of the quantised field in current-technology Earth-bound experiments. However, this does not yet guarantee that in the accessible regime, the time evolution is accurately given by the Schrödinger equation. Here we propose to measure the effects of an asymmetric mass configuration on a quantum particle in an interferometer. For this setup we show that with parameters within experimental reach, one can be sensitive to possible deviations from the Schrödinger equation, beyond the already verified lowest-order regime. Performing this experiment will hence directly test the nonclassical behaviour of a quantum particle in the gravitational field.
We investigate the photon induced tunneling phenomena in a photonic crystal cavity containing a strongly coupled quantum dot and describe how this tunneling can be used to generate photon states consisting mainly of a particular Fock state. Additionally, we study experimentally the photon-induced tunneling as a function of excitation laser power and frequency and show the signature of second rung of the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian in the observed photon-statistics.
The possibility of observing nonclassical features in a physical system comprised of a cavity with two ensembles of two-level atoms has been investigated by considering different configurations of the ensembles with respect to the Node and Antinode of the cavity field under the framework of open quantum systems. The study reveals the strong presence of nonclassical characters in the physical system by establishing the existence of many facets of nonclassicality, such as the sub-Poissonian boson statistics and squeezing in single modes, intermodal squeezing, intermodal entanglement, antibunchin…
Strongly squeezed states of light are a key technology in boosting the sensitivity of interferometric setups, such as in gravitational-wave detectors. However, the practical use of squeezed states is limited by optical loss, which reduces the observable squeeze factor. Here we experimentally demonstrate that introducing squeezed states in additional, higher-order spatial modes can significantly improve the observed nonclassical sensitivity improvement when the loss is due to mode-matching deficiencies. Our results could be directly applied to gravitational-wave detectors, where this type of lo…
The significance of photon addition in engineering the single- and two-mode (bipartite correlations) nonclassical properties of a quantum state is investigated. Specifically, we analyzed the behavior of the Wigner function of two quasi-Werner states theoretically constructed by superposing two normalized bipartite $m$-photon added coherent states. This allowed us to quantify the amount of nonclassicality present in the quantum states using Wigner logarithmic negativity (WLN), while quantum correlations are measured in terms of concurrence, entanglement of formation, and quantum discord. The WL…
We consider possible detection of nonclassicality of primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) by applying Hanbury Brown - Twiss (HBT) interferometry to cosmology. We characterize the nonclassicality of PGWs in terms of sub-Poissonian statistics that can be measured by the HBT interferometry. We show that the presence of classical sources during inflation makes us possible to detect nonclassical PGWs with the HBT interferometry. We present two examples that realize the classical sources during inflation. It turns out that PGWs with frequencies higher than 10 kHz enable us to detect their nonclassi…
Gravity gradient is known as a serious systematic effect in atomic tests of the universality of free fall, where the initial central position and velocity of atoms need to be exactly controlled. In this paper, we study quantum free fall with high-order gravity gradients. It is shown that the cubic terms in the Newtonian potential shall generate a new phase shift in atom interferometers, which depends on the position and velocity uncertainties of the incident atoms. We further investigate the nonclassicality of free fall and show that, due to the cubic potential, the gravitational Wigner equati…
Atmospheric channels are a promising candidate to establish secure quantum communication on a global scale. However, due to their turbulent nature, it is crucial to understand the impact of the atmosphere on the quantum properties of light and examine it experimentally. In this paper, we introduce a method to probe atmospheric free-space links with quantum light on a laboratory scale. In contrast to previous works, our method models arbitrary intensity losses caused by turbulence to emulate general atmospheric conditions. This allows us to characterize turbulent quantum channels in a well-cont…
Gravity-induced entanglement is not a theory-independent witness of nonclassicality of the gravitational field
Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences（维也纳量子光学与量子信息研究所（IQOQI），奥地利科学院）；Basic Research Community for Physics e.V.（基础物理研究社区协会）
The nonclassicality of primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) is characterized in terms of sub-Poissonian graviton statistics. The sub-Poissonian statistics are realized when quantum states are squeezed coherent states. In the presence of matter fields, the Universe experiences the squeezed coherent state during inflation. The condition to realize the sub-Poissonian graviton statistics is translated into the frequency range of gravitational waves. If the initial state is the Bunch-Davies vacuum, there is another necessary condition between phases of squeezing and coherent parameters. Here, we e…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) are promising dark matter candidates. They are typically described by a classical field, motivated by large phase space occupation numbers. Here we show that such a description is accompanied by a quantum effect: squeezing due to gravitational self-interactions. For a typical QCD axion today, the onset of squeezing is reached on $\mathrm{μs}$-scales and grows over millennia. Thus within the usual models based on the classical Schrödinger-Poisson equation, a type of Gross-Pitaevskii equation, any viable ALP is nonclassical. We also show that squeezing may be relevant…
We study the loss of quantumness caused by time dilation [1] for a Schrödinger cat state. We give a holistic view of the quantum to classical transition by comparing the dynamics of several nonclassicality indicators, such as the Wigner function interference fringe, the negativity of the Wigner function, the nonclassical depth, the Vogel criterion and the Klyshko criterion. Our results show that only two of these indicators depend critically on the size of the cat, namely on how macroscopic the superposition is. Finally we compare the gravitation-induced decoherence times to the typical decohe…
Highly nonclassical character of optical quantum detectors, such as single-photon detectors, is essential for preparation of quantum states of light and a vast majority of applications in quantum metrology and quantum information processing. Therefore, it is both fundamentally interesting and practically relevant to investigate the nonclassical features of optical quantum measurements. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a procedure for direct certification of quantum non-Gaussianity and Wigner function negativity, two crucial nonclassicality levels, of photonic quantum detectors. R…
Probing gravitational interaction between milligram optomechanical oscillators operating in the quantum regime
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, TIFPA（意大利国家核物理研究所，TIFPA）；Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism, Nanoscience-Trento-FBK Division（电子与磁性材料研究所，纳米科学-特伦托FBK分部）；Physics Division, School of Science and Technology, Università di Camerino（卡梅里诺大学理学院物理系）；INFN, Sezione di Perugia（意大利国家核物理研究所，佩鲁加分部）；LENS（激光工程与应用科学欧洲研究中心）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze（佛罗伦萨大学物理与天文学系）；INFN, Sezione di Firenze（意大利国家核物理研究所，佛罗伦萨分部）；CNR-INO（意大利国家研究委员会-光学研究所）
Quantum walks in atomic systems, owing to their continuous nature, are especially well-suited for the simulation of many-body physics and can potentially offer an exponential speedup in solving certain black box problems. Photonics offers an alternate route to simulating such nonclassical behavior in a more robust platform. However, in photonic implementations to date, an increase to the depth of a continuous quantum walk requires modifying the footprint of the system. Here we report continuous walks of a two-photon quantum frequency comb with entanglement across multiple dimensions. The coupl…
In a recent table-top experiment we demonstrated the compatibility of three advanced interferometer techniques for gravitational wave detection, namely power-recycling, detuned signal-recycling and squeezed field injection. The interferometer's signal to noise ratio was improved by up to 2.8 dB beyond the coherent state's shot-noise. This value was mainly limited by optical losses on the squeezed field. We present a detailed analysis of the optical losses of in our experiment and provide an estimation of the possible nonclassical performance of a future squeezed field enhanced GEO600 detector.
Interfacing quantum mechanics and gravity is one of the great open questions in natural science. Micromechanical oscillators have been suggested as a plausible platform to carry out these experiments. We present an experimental design aiming at these goals, inspired by Schmöle et al., Class. Quantum Grav. 33, 125031 (2016). Gold spheres weighing on the order a milligram will be positioned on large silicon nitride membranes, which are spaced at submillimeter distances from each other. These mass-loaded membranes are mechanical oscillators that vibrate at $\sim 2$ kHz frequencies in a drum mode.…
Using as a testbed the recently proposed "gravcat" experimental scheme in [1], we compare the properties of gravitational cat states in three descriptions: (1) canonical quantum theory (CQT) combined with the Newtonian limit of GR, (2) objective collapse theories (OCTs) extended to the regime of semiclassical Newtonian gravity, and (3) OCTs extended to incorporate quantized Newtonian gravity. For the CQT approach, we follow the treatment of Hu and Anastopoulos in [2]. For the OCTs, we consider the GRW, CSL, DP, and Karolyhazy theories, based on the semiclassical approaches of Derakhshani [3] a…
Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence（希夫纳德卓越机构）；ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology（ICFO-光子科学研究所，巴塞罗那科学技术研究院）；ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）
Searching for Quantum Effects in the Brain: A Bell-Type Test for Nonclassical Latent Representations in Autoencoders
School of Science, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology（浙江大学科学技术学院）；Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, University of Crete（希腊克里特大学物理系和理论与计算物理研究所）；College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University（杭州师范大学生命与环境科学学院）；School of Automation and Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology（浙江大学科学技术学院自动化与电气工程学院）；John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University（哈佛大学约翰·A·保罗森工程与应用科学学院）
We study how the behavior of quantum noise, presenting the fundamental limit on the sensitivity of interferometric gravitational-wave detectors, depends on properties of input states of light. We analyze the situation with specially prepared nonclassical input states which reduce the photon-counting noise to the Heisenberg limit. This results in a great reduction of the optimum light power needed to achieve the standard quantum limit, compared to the usual configuration.
Levitated particles are a promising platform for precision sensing of external perturbations and probing the boundary between quantum and classical worlds. A critical obstacle for these applications is the difficulty of generating nonclassical states of motion which have not been realized so far. Here, we show that strong squeezing of the motion of a levitated particle below the vacuum level is feasible with available experimental parameters. Using suitable modulation of the trapping potential (which is impossible with clamped mechanical resonators) and coherent scattering of trapping photons …
We consider the nonunitary quantum dynamics of neutral massless scalar particles used to model photons around a massive gravitational lens. The gravitational interaction between the lensing mass and asymptotically free particles is described by their second-quantized scattering wavefunctions. Remarkably, the zero-point spacetime fluctuations can induce significant decoherence of the scattered states with spontaneous emission of gravitons, thereby reducing the particles' coherence as well as energy. This new effect suggests that, when photon polarizations are negligible, such quantum gravity ph…
Probing high-frequency gravitational waves with entangled vibrational qubits in linear Paul traps
KEK Theory Center（高能加速器研究机构理论中心）；The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI（高级研究大学院大学（SOKENDAI））；Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学汤川理论物理研究所）
(A) The momentum density conjugate to a bosonic quantum field splits naturally into the sum of a classical component and a nonclassical component. It is shown that the field and the nonclassical component of the momentum density satisfy an_exact_ uncertainty relation, i.e., an equality, which underlies the Heisenberg-type uncertainty relation for fields. (B) The above motivates a new approach to deriving and interpreting bosonic quantum fields, based on an exact uncertainty principle. In particular, the postulate that an ensemble of classical fields is subject to nonclassical momentum fluctuat…
