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Spin Entanglement Witness for Quantum Gravity.
- Source :
-
Physical review letters [Phys Rev Lett] 2017 Dec 15; Vol. 119 (24), pp. 240401. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Dec 13. - Publication Year :
- 2017
-
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.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1079-7114
- Volume :
- 119
- Issue :
- 24
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Physical review letters
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 29286711
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.240401