Gravitational redshift induces quantum interference
arXiv:2109.00728 · doi:10.1002/andp.202200468
Abstract
We use quantum field theory in curved spacetime to show that gravitational redshift induces a unitary transformation on the quantum state of propagating photons. This occurs for realistic photons characterized by a finite bandwidth, while ideal photons with sharp frequencies do not transform unitarily. We find that the transformation is a mode-mixing operation, and we devise a protocol that exploits gravity to induce a Hong-Ou-Mandel-like interference effect on the state of two photons. Testing the results of this work can provide a demonstration of quantum field theory in curved spacetime.
7 pages, 2 figures
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Cited by in corpus (8)
- Quantum memories for fundamental science in space
- Gravitational distortion on photon state at the vicinity of the Earth
- Entanglement dynamics of photon pairs and quantum memories in the gravitational field of the earth
- Introduction to gravitational redshift of quantum photons propagating in curved spacetime
- Entanglement-enhanced quantum ranging in the near-Earth spacetime
- Astrophysically sourced quantum coherent photonic signals
- Limits to the validity of gravitational redshift as a quantum-optical multimode mixer
- Quantum interferometry in external gravitational fields