Freiburg 2024 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 15: Optomechanics

Q 15.1: Hauptvortrag

Dienstag, 12. März 2024, 11:00–11:30, HS 1015

Levitated nanoparticles as testbeds for fundamental aspects of physics — •Julen S. Pedernales — University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

Quantum mechanics has been enormously successful at describing the microscopic world, however, at scales that exceed the mass of a few thousand atoms, it remains largely unexplored. Recent progress in the quantum control of the mechanical degrees of freedom of solids suspended in a vacuum suggests that this situation might be changing in the near to mid-term future. Containing billions of atoms, levitated nanoparticles might be able to perform quantum experiments in an unprecedented mass regime, and thus, interrogate Nature about fundamental aspects of physics for which we do not have an answer: does the linearity of quantum mechanics hold at macroscopic scales? or, how does the gravitational field of a source in superposition look like?

In my talk, I will examine the opportunities and challenges that this nascent quantum platform presents to address these fascinating questions. First, I will present a collection of proposed techniques to extend the coherence times and shorten the duration of experiments aimed at realizing matter-wave interferometry with levitated solids. Secondly, I will discuss the prospects of observing gravitationally mediated entanglement between levitated solids--a route to explore the quantumness of gravity. Finally, I will introduce an alternative strategy for the detection of the quantumness of gravity which does not rely on the generation of entanglement.

Keywords: levitated optomechanics; matter-wave interferometry; quantumness of gravity; gravitationally mediated entanglement; macroscopic quantum mechanics