Gravitational decoherence by the apparatus in the quantum-gravity induced entanglement of masses

Abstract

One of the outstanding questions in modern physics is how to test whether gravity is classical or quantum in a laboratory. Recently there has been a proposal to test the quantum nature of gravity by creating quantum superpositions of two nearby neutral masses, close enough that the quantum nature of gravity can entangle the two quantum systems, but still sufficiently far away that all other known Standard Model interactions remain negligible. However, the mere process of preparing superposition states of a neutral mass (the light system), requires the vicinity of laboratory apparatus (the heavy system). We will suppose that such a heavy system can be modelled as another quantum system; since gravity is universal, the lighter system can get entangled with the heavier system, providing an inherent source of gravitational decoherence. In this paper, we will consider two light and two heavy quantum oscillators, forming pairs of probe-detector systems, and study under what conditions the entanglement between two light systems evades the decoherence induced by the heavy systems. We conclude by estimating the magnitude of the decoherence in the proposed experiment for testing the quantum nature of gravity.

14 pages, 4 figures

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• Relativistic Dips in Entangling Power of Gravity
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• Benchmarks for quantum communication via gravity