Single electron relativistic clock interferometer

Abstract

Although time is one of the fundamental notions in physics, it does not have a unique description. In quantum theory time is a parameter ordering the succession of the probability amplitudes of a quantum system, while according to relativity theory each system experiences in general a different proper time, depending on the system's world line, due to time to time dilation. It is therefore of fundamental interest to test the notion of time in the regime where both quantum and relativistic effects play a role, for example, when different amplitudes of a single quantum clock experience different magnitudes of time dilation. Here we propose a realization of such an experiment with a single electron in a Penning trap. The clock can be implemented in the electronic spin precession and its time dilation then depends on the radial (cyclotron) state of the electron. We show that coherent manipulation and detection of the electron can be achieved already with present day technology. A single electron in a Penning trap is a technologically ready platform where the notion of time can be probed in a hitherto untested regime, where it requires a relativistic as well as quantum description.

9 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Coupling Superconducting Qubits via a Cavity Bus
• Simple pulses for elimination of leakage in weakly nonlinear qubits
• Systematic evaluation of an atomic clock at 2e-18 total uncertainty
• Analytic control methods for high fidelity unitary operations in a weakly nonlinear oscillator
• Measuring and Suppressing Quantum State Leakage in a Superconducting Qubit
• Strong extinction of a laser beam by a single molecule
• General relativistic effects in quantum interference of photons
• A self-interfering clock as a "which path" witness

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Quantum clocks observe classical and quantum time dilation
• Gravitational redshift in quantum-clock interferometry
• Interference of Clocks: A Quantum Twin Paradox
• Gravitational mass of composite systems
• Classical and Nonclassical Time Dilation for Quantum Clocks
• Quantum time dilation in atomic spectra
• Quantum complementarity of clocks in the context of general relativity
• Quantum time dilation in a gravitational field
• Testing quantum theory on curved space-time with quantum networks
• Estimation of gravitational acceleration with quantum optical interferometers
• Quantum field theory for multipolar composite bosons with mass defect and relativistic corrections
• Relativistic Effects on Entangled Single-Electron Traps
• Quantum signatures of proper time in optical ion clocks
• Mass-energy equivalence in gravitationally bound quantum states of the neutron
• Composite particles with minimum uncertainty in spacetime
• Universality of quantum time dilation
• Witnessing mass-energy equivalence with trapped atom interferometers
• Effect of environment on the interferometry of clocks