Dephasing of entangled atoms as an improved test of quantized space time

• Published in: Journal of physics. B, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2013-11, Vol.46 (22), p.224003
• Main Authors: Everitt, Mark S, Jones, Martin L, Varcoe, Benjamin T H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: cavity QED; Jaynes-Cummings; quantum gravity; quantum optics
• ISSN: 0953-4075; 1361-6455
• DOI: 10.1088/0953-4075/46/22/224003

Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) has been highly successful in the demonstration of many features of quantum mechanics and in this paper we introduce a potential future application of cavity QED to the detection of quantized space time. Wang et al (2006 Class. Quantum Grav. 23 L59), demonstrated that the phase of a particle fluctuated due to interactions with random deviations of a conformal gravitational field and therefore that atom interferometers may be sensitive to these fluctuations. Hence, it is possible that sensitivity to Planck scale effects could be achieved with a sufficiently sensitive interferometer. In this paper we demonstrate that a class of entangled states, the N-atom Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, provide a better scaling than atom interferometry and that current experiments are capable of making a significant impact in this field. We outline an experiment which uses atomic beams of rubidium atoms excited to Rydberg states that undergo controlled collisions in high-Q microwave resonators in a sequence that makes the resulting state highly sensitive to conformal field fluctuations. We show that a significant advance in sensitivity is possible.