Hannover 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SYAD: Symposium SAMOP Dissertation-Prize 2016

SYAD 1: SAMOP Dissertation-Prize

SYAD 1.4: Hauptvortrag

Dienstag, 1. März 2016, 12:30–13:00, e415

Quantum systems under gravitational time dilation — •Magdalena Zych — ARC Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS), University of Queensland, Australia

Despite continuous development, modern physics still rests on two separate frameworks, quantum mechanics and general relativity. The notion of time is considered to be central for understanding the regime where the two theories jointly apply. This talk will introduce an operational approach to proper time in quantum theory by considering composed quantum systems -- quantum ``clocks'' -- in general space-time background. The approach describes new quantum effects arising from time dilation in interference experiments with ``clocks'' (e.g. atoms, molecules) that follow in superposition paths with different proper times. For macroscopic systems these effects lead to an effective decoherence, showing that time dilation might be relevant for the quantum-to-classical transition. The approach further leads to a quantum formulation of the Einstein Equivalence Principle and shows that testing its validity requires conceptually different experiments than in the classical case. Finally, the approach naturally extends to scenarios in which quantum ``clocks'' are embedded in a non-classical space time, e.g. resulting from a spatial superposition of a large mass. Quantum theory and general relativity provide an unambiguous description of such scenarios and no inconsistencies arise -- in contrast to a common assumption that such a description is not possible even in principle.